The School House

SP4631 DEDDINGTON HOPCRAFT LANE (East side) 8/178 The School House 08/12/55 (Formerly listed as Chapmans Way, Council Street)

GV II Farmhouse, now workshop and offices. 1655 and 1735 on datestones. Coursed squared marlstone with some ashlar dressings and some wooden lintels: Welsh-slate roof with ashlar-and-brick stacks. 2-unit plan enlarged to 4 units. 2 storeys plus attic and 2 storeys. Earlier left half of range, with a steeper roof, has three 3-light wood-mullioned windows at first floor, but at ground floor has 3-light ovolo-moulded stone-mullioned windows, with labels, flanking an altered doorway which retains an ovolo-moulded lintel with jewelled stops; immediately left of doorway is a small blocked window. Right half of front has 3 renewed 3-light casements at ground floor, 2 with stop-chamfered lintels, but first floor has a re-used 3-light C17 wood-mullioned window enlarged to 7 lights, probably in 1735. All first-floor windows have old lattice glazing. Left end wall has a 3-light stone-mullioned window, a 3-light wood-mullioned window, and has an old 2-light casement in the gable; parapet has moulded copings and projecting scrolled kneelers. Rear has further ancient leaded casements, and has a gabled stair projection. Principal datestone is inscribed 1655 and ZS/1735; a second stone has the arms of Stilgoe and the date 1917. Interior: 3 open fireplaces with wooden bressumers and continuous chamfers; renewed spiral stair. The large first-floor room in the later range is reputed to have served as a schoolroom. C20 workshop extensions are not of special architectural interest. (Buildings of England: Oxfordshire: p572; VCH: Oxfordshire: Vol XI, pp87-8; R, Wood-Jones: Traditional Domestic Architecture in the Banbury Region: 1963, pp124-7)

Listing NGR: SP4687931530