East Grange South Grange West Grange

STEEPLE ASTON GRANGE PARK ROAD SP4726 (South side) 8/105 South Grange, East Grange and West Grange - II

Large house, now 3 dwellings. Probably C18, much altered and extended c.1830 for Thomas Davis; altered and sub-divided late C20. Coursed squared limestone with ashlar dressings; flint with brick dressings; brick with some rendered dressings; Stonesfield-slate, artificial stone-slate and concrete plain-tile roofs with brick stacks. L plan with many additions. Gothick style. 2 storeys plus attics and 3 storeys plus attics. Former main front has a central crenellated flint porch with a wide Tudor-arched entrance, flanked by 2-storey tower-like brick projections from the main range, which have a variety of pointed and Tudor-style windows plus numerous reliefs and decoration. Irregular 4-window wing, facing the road, includes 2 windows with lozenge-pattern glazing bars. Further range, parallel with and to rear of the wing, has large Tudor-style windows and more decorative panels. Central rubble bay and the end of the rubble return wing to right have similar parapets and decorative panels. Interior: West Grange contains the original 2-storey entrance hall (now horizontally divided) with a plaster ribbed vault including elaborate bosses and corbels, and with 5 plaster roundels on the walls; architraves in hall and drawing room include heavy egg-and-dart decoration (matched by the hall fireplace and one panelled door), and a later-C18 Chinese-trellis pattern; fine mid-C18 painted fireplace, with consoles and festoons, has a bolection-mould inner surround in black marble which may be a separate early-C18 fireplace. South Grange has egg-and-dart architraves and early-C19 plaster cornices. East Grange has some similar architraves on doors leading off the 3-storey apsidal stair hall, which has a cantilevered stone stair with a cast-iron balustrade; drawing room has late-C18 architraves and a fine Rococo fireplace with a rustic scene carved on the central panel. Thomas Davis (died 1863) was Surgeon to William IV, and is reputed to have brought some of the decorative work from Kew Palace; Middle Aston House (demolished 1806) has also been suggested as the source of the fine C18 joinery, (VCH: Oxfordshire: Vol XI, p23; Buildings of England: Oxfordshire: p787)

Listing NGR: SP4727326070