Priory Farmhouse

WROXTON MANOR FARM LANE SP3941 (South side) Balscote 9/233 Priory Farmhouse 08/12/55 II* Farmhouse now house. C14 hall house extended c.1500 by a new service bay, separated from the hall by a through-passage. Hall ceiled over in C17 and north wall rebuilt. Fireplace in hall and staircase added in service bay. C18 alterations and additions to the service bay included introduction of first floor, new butt purlin roof, bolection moulded fireplaces and sash windows. Squared, coursed ironstone. Ashlar on south wall above hall window. Main front. C14 original hall house on right has C20 wood shingle roof. C15 part on left has steeply pitched C20-tile roof. 2 stone end stacks. Hall house, now 2-unit through- passage plan. 2 storeys. 3-window range altogether. Entrance into C15 part on left has a doorway with a 4-centred arched head with hood mould and lozenge shaped label stops. Spandrels with quatrefoil decoration. Badly weathered heavy plank door secured internally by oak drawbar. To left of doorway a 2-light flat-splay stone mullion with hood mould and label stops. Above the doorway a 3-light wood mullioned window with metal casements with wrought-iron casement fasteners and lead cames. Staircase projection on far left. C14 part on right has 3- and 4-light flat splay stone mullioned windows with hood moulds and label stops. First floor has 2- and 4-light casement windows with wood lintels. 2 small blocked stone framed attic windows. Rear. Window to original hall has a renewed C14/early C15 four-light stone mullioned great window with curvilinear tracery in head. 4-light casement on right. C20 window to first floor. Right part. C18 doorway with overlight and C20 door. 2 sash windows on right, 3 sashes to first floor, all with stone flat arches. Interior. Original plan of hall, through passage and service survives. Hall. l7'x19'. Walls averaging 2'6" in thickness. Wide stone fireplace with bressumer. Stop-chamfered beam. Raised cruck roof with collars and upper collars, within C20 roof above C14 part. Service bay, now parlour, has C18 bolection moulded stone fireplace, moulded stone dado, plank door with H-L hinge. Panelled shutters with wrought-iron fasteners. First floor has plank and 2-panelled doors. C20 staircase. An important example retaining medieval precedents for regional style and building practice which became prevalent in the C16 and C17. Probably built by Wroxton Abbey in connection with its possessions at Balscott. (VCH: Oxfordshire, Vol IX, p173-4; Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, 1974, p428; Wood-Jones, Traditional Domestic Architecture in the Banbury Region, 1963, p42-9; Figs. 8 and 9; P1 3a and 7b. Photographs in N.M.R.)

Listing NGR: SP3923541665