The Mount

The Mount is a detached house located on Bletchingdon Road in Kirtlington, dating from the early to mid-19th century with a later 19th-century rear outshut that was extended in the 1960s.

The building is constructed of coursed limestone with dressed limestone quoins and slate roofs. The gable end stacks are of yellow brick and were probably formerly rendered. It is a two-storey, two-cell house of single depth plan with an outshut running the full length of the building at the rear. A small cellar lies under part of the house. The stairs rise transversely opposite the front door, which is roughly central, and the outshut is reached from both rear rooms. A partition wall at the rear of the parlour may have been removed. Doors lead to cupboards under the stairs. On the first floor, a small landing leads to two bedrooms with a small unlit closet between them.

The front elevation is symmetrical in three bays. The entrance is set in a simple timber architrave and has a six-panel door with flush lower panels and moulded upper panels (replaced), all under a replaced canopy on moulded brackets copying the original. The windows are six-over-six pane unhorned sashes under flat stone arches with slightly raised keystones and stone cills. Above the entrance is a blind opening similarly treated. The rear upper floor has a pair of small timber four-pane casements. The outshut, which is separately built from the main house, has 20th-century casements. A carved stone finial and a stone tablet inscribed 'Anno 1567 MFPL/MCET' are incorporated in the gable wall.

Internally, the stairs rise between partition walls opposite the entrance. The partition to the north is of stone, while that to the south is of lath and plaster and may be a later installation. It is possible that the stairs were partitioned off from the southern room when the outshut was added. The parlour to the north has a mid-19th-century cast iron fireplace in a moulded timber surround flanked by shallow alcoves, one with a small piece of moulded stone or plaster inset below it. Ground floor doors are of four panels, while first floor doors are of ledge and brace construction with broad boards. Ground floor windows have folding panelled shutters with catches or stay bars. The entrance lobby and room to the south have stone flag floors.

The Mount is an example of a small genteel house dating from the early to mid-19th century and stands in a plot which resembles that depicted on the 1875 Ordnance Survey map and probably the 1815 enclosure map. The boundary wall is dated 1923. It is said to have been the station master's house for Enslow Station. The inset carved stonework may indicate an occupant with antiquarian interests. The house displays a hierarchy rising from the parlour with its alcoves flanking an elegant fireplace and panelled doors and shutters with catches, to the more practical kitchen with its flag floors and more robust shutters, and finally to the first floor with its simple ledge and brace doors. Kirtlington Park to the north of the village was built between 1742 and 1746 by William Smith and James Sanderson for Sir James Dashwood.