Attached Walls And Outbuildings

This is a farmhouse, now a house, dating to circa 1760-70, with an earlier wing from the late 17th or early 18th century attached to the rear left. The construction is of squared and coursed limestone, with a gabled concrete tile roof to the front, a stone slate roof to the rear left wing, and a late 19th-century plain tile roof to the wing on the right. It has a U-plan with projecting wings to the rear. The house is three storeys high and has a symmetrical five-window front. A portico, constructed in the early 19th century, features a moulded cornice and columns supporting a keyed stone lintel above a six-panelled front door. The windows are late 19th-century two-pane sashes with keyed stone lintels. Raised storey bands and a moulded cornice to the parapet are also present. A range to the right, with a hipped roof, was refronted in the late 19th century, displaying stone lintels above late 19th-century sashes to the one-bay front, and flat stone arches over early 19th-century eight-pane sashes to the right and rear. A round window sits above a 20th-century outshut to the rear.

The interior features stone flagged floors, 18th and early 19th-century panelled doors, and late 18th and early 19th-century plank doors to the rear right, including one with a fine Norfolk latch and a segmental-arched, heavy-pegged frame. A marble fireplace is located on the ground floor to the left, and a similar fireplace is on the first floor to the right. A mid-18th-century fireplace, featuring a moulded stone architrave and a mid-18th-century hob grate with a panelled cupboard door to one side, is also present in the attic. A fine mid-18th-century open-well staircase has a wreathed handrail, turned balusters on an open string, and carved guttae to fret-cut brackets, with panelled dados to the stair hall and well. The rear left wing contains stop-chamfered beams and an apple loft with a three-bay collar-truss roof.

The surrounding walls are constructed of stone-coped limestone rubble, enclosing a garden approximately 58 metres by 22 metres in size. Attached outbuildings include an 18th-century privy of limestone rubble with a pyramidal stone slate roof, an 18th-century storehouse of similar materials with a collar-truss roof, and a mid-19th-century outbuilding with a pantile roof. The walls were used for fruit growing; the area of Kidlington was historically known for fruit cultivation, particularly apricots.