The Nuffield Press, East Wing And Attached Former School House

The Nuffield Press, East Wing, and the attached former School House represent a former school and military college, later a car factory, now primarily offices for a printing works. The School House dates to 1852; the East Wing was built between 1877 and 1878 by Sir T. G. Jackson, with 20th-century alterations and restoration in 1983.

The East Wing is rendered with terracotta enrichments and brick dressings, topped with a plain-tile hipped roof featuring a truncated ridge stack above a Dutch gable. It is a Renaissance-Revival style building, with a three-story, ten-window front. Most windows are cross-shaped with two lights and glazing bars, set within brick surrounds and cut-brick aprons. The third bay from the right breaks forward slightly under the gable, featuring a tall window on the second floor. Terracotta moulded strings run across the facade. The rear elevation has elaborate terracotta pilasters and entralatures dividing the bays and floors, with recessed blank ovals on the second floor. A rubble stone wall is visible to the left, where construction of an intended cowl was abandoned.

The attached School House is of coursed rubble stone construction with ashlar dressings and a Welsh slate roof, punctuated by stone end and lateral stacks. It is an L-shaped building with two stories and an attic. The front facing Hollow Way has a five-window arrangement, mostly featuring two-light stone mullioned and transomed windows on the ground and first floors. A gable to the right includes a canted oriel window on the first floor and a three-light attic window, accompanied by two roof dormers. A similar front to Oxford Road has four windows, with a canted bay window on the ground floor and a small attic oriel, along with three roof dormers. Hood moulds feature above ground floor and gable windows. The building is topped with stone-coped, shouldered gable parapets with kneelers, and stone parapets.

Interior alterations have occurred, but Lord Nuffield’s office, in use from 1912 to 1963 within the School House, remains. The School House was originally built for Cowley College, while the East Wing served the Oxford Military College. In 1912, William Morris, later Lord Nuffield, converted the East Wing into a Morris car factory, where "bullnose" Morris Oxfords were produced beginning in 1913. The ground floor held received car parts and machining operations; the first floor was used for assembling chassis frames and fitting engines and wheels; the second floor was for fitting car bodies, and the loft was for storage and painting wheels. The other buildings at the Nuffield Press are not considered to be of special architectural interest.