Rycote House

Rycote House, Great Haseley

A large house of early 16th-century date (with parts possibly earlier) and 20th-century work. The building is constructed of brick with stone dressings and limestone rubble, with an old plain-tile roof and brick stacks. It comprises three ranges arranged around a courtyard.

The entrance front of the right wing (main house) is of two storeys with attics, built in diaper brickwork with a stone plinth. A 4-centre arched doorway with label forms the main entrance, flanked to the right by a 2-light stone-mullioned window (possibly re-set) and above it a 3-light mullioned window with label. Both windows have concave-moulded 4-centre arched lights with recessed spandrels and leaded lights. To the left of the door are a 20th-century sash window and two further sashes at first-floor level. Small 20th-century roof dormers are present. To the right is a small contemporary 3-storey projecting wing with a 4-centre arched door in the angle, stone quoins, a stepped gable with moulded copings, and at second floor a corbelled chimney projection with a tall octagonal brick gable stack. The remainder of the range to the left is probably largely rebuilt and is masked by a parallel 20th-century range of four windows in rubble with brick dressings.

The 3-window return front to the right is in diaper brickwork with a crenellated parapet and stepped gable of the main range, featuring similar stone-mullioned windows with labels, the largest being a 5-light window in the gable.

The garden front at the rear of this range is in diaper brickwork with a deep early 18th-century plaster cove. It has a 3-window arrangement of sashes with a tripartite sash to the right of a central door, all under renewed gauged brick flat arches. Immediately to the left of the door is a restored 2-light mullioned window with a single light above. To the extreme right is a brick buttress with a stone bracket and ogee canopy, beyond which is a rebuilt 2-window section incorporating a 2-storey canted bay window and a 3-light stone-mullioned window.

The 2-storey central range in rubble has an irregular 7-window front with renewed casements. A similar 6-window range to the left of the courtyard includes a 3-light stone-mullioned window with leaded lights and the remains of three small oak-framed windows at first floor. The gable wall has a segmental-arched carriage door under a weatherboarded gable. The left end of the centre range has a timber-framed gable with herringbone brick infill; the right end is enclosed by a small courtyard with walls of diaper brickwork incorporating re-set features.

Interior features include coffered ceilings in the main range, a timber-framed partition with remains of three door frames with moulded chamfer stops, a 4-centre arched doorway with original door and hinge, and a butt-purlin roof. The other ranges have early clasped-purlin roofs of approximately ten bays (centre) and seven bays (left), with heavy curved struts rising from the framed lower collar to the upper purlin and curved windbraces.

The buildings formed part of a mansion probably rebuilt after 1521 by Sir John Heron, Treasurer to Henry VIII, and/or after 1539 by Sir John Williams (later Baron Williams of Thame). They are shown to the left and forward of the main house in views of circa 1695 by Winstanley (marked "stables") and of 1714 by Kip. The main house was burned down in 1745.