Minchery Farmhouse

SP 50 SW SANDFORD-ON-THAMES 1/109 Minchery Farmhouse. 18/07/63 - II*

Farmhouse, now country club. C15 dormitory range of Littlemore Priory reconstructed c.1600. Limestone rubble with squared dressings; old plain-tile roof with stone and brick ridge stacks. Single range running north-south with stair tower on west. 2 storeys plus attics. 5-window entrance front (west) has central doorway with 4-centre moulded stone arch and label. To right a C20 3- light window with a C20 stone-mullioned window beyond. Between, a single light at intermediate height in line with stone stack, with ovolo-moulded surround. At first floor, mullioned windows of 2,3 and 2 lights, only that over the door having its original ovolo-moulded stonework. Left from the door is a gabled stair tower of 2 storeys with C19 window openings under stone segmental arches. To left is a further bay with re-modelled openings and a secondary entrance. A single-bay 2-storey extension from the north gable wall is probably late C18. The east front has at first floor a row of 5 evenly spaced single lights. They are probably C15 and have trefoil and cinquefoil heads in concave-chamfered rectangular surrounds. To right is a 4-light mullioned window, also concave-chamfered. At ground floor is a doorway, opposite the main entrance, with moulded 4-centre arched head. To left is a C15 window with 2 trefoil-headed lights and beyond a single light with chamfered stone surround. To right a mutilated mullioned window of 2 chamfered lights and another C15 window of 2 trefoiled-headed lights. Bay to extreme left has C20 altered openings. South gable wall with brick stack was probably rebuilt in C18. Interior: Now much altered, but has several chamfered and stopped beams and 2-stone moulded Tudor-arched fireplaces at first floor. The early C17 dog- leg stair rising to the attics has pierced flat balusters and lantern finials and pendants. Wooden 3-centre arches with carved spandrels over the flights. The 7-bay roof has 8 heavy queen-post trusses, each with collars clasping purlins, the top collar being cambered. Views of about 1826 show mullioned windows throughout, roughly in the present arrangement, but the west front has the remains of a stone porch, and also has a Gothic-arched doorway to right of the single light former stair window. (V.C.H. Oxfordshire V, pp.267-8; Buildings of England, Oxfordshire, pp.689-90: W.A. Pantin, "Minchery Farm, Littlemore", Oxoniensia Vol 35 (1970), pp.19-26; National Monuments Record).

Listing NGR: SP5453502285