Temple Farmhouse

SP 5301 SANDFORD-ON-THAMES 10/110 Temple Farmhouse. 18/07/63 GV II

Farmhouse, now country club. C16, possibly earlier and C18 reconstructed c.1900. Limestone rubble with ashlar dressings; old plain-tile roof. 2- parallel ranges with linking wing. 2 storeys plus attics. Moulded eaves-coves, gable parapets, stone stacks and much else in the main range dates from the re-building, but the entrance front has 2 earlier windows at first floor: to left a C16 stone-mullioned window with 3 concave-chamfered 4-centre arched lights, and above the entrance a 2-light window with 2-centre arched lights, concave chamfered but with no outer rebate. Re-set shield carved with cross pattee over entrance. Gable of projecting wing to right has a C16 3-light window with 4-centre arched lights and double concave chamfer. Below is a C20 copy. Extending right from projecting wing is an C18 2-storey 2-window cottage range with central door and 3-light casements. Left gable wall of main range is probably early C17 and has concave-chamfered mullioned windows with straight hood-moulds. Rear has two C15 windows of 2 and 3 (remains) lights with concave- chamfered 4-centre arched lights and an outer casement moulding, also a crude arched single light. Interior: Main range has some C17 panelling and a C16 moulded stone fireplace with Tudor roses carved in the spandrels. Roof has 3 heavy cambered tie-beams, morticed on the soffit for braces. The building is on the site of a preceptory of the Knights Templars, later transfered to the Knights Hospitallers of St. John. (V.C.H. Oxfordshire V, p.268; Buildings of England Oxfordshire, p.750).

Listing NGR: SP5318401877