The White House

PYRTON CHURCH LANE SU6895 (East side) 13/132 The White House 18/07/63 (Formerly listed as The Old Vicarage)

GV II

House. Late C15, extended in C17; extended and remodelled c.1800 for William Buckle, vicar 1787 to 1832. Originally timber-framed with jettied and gable side wings; close studding with brick nogging in left side wall. Roughcast; hipped old tile roof; late C15/C16; brick right end stack and C.19 lateral stacks. U-plan extended to double-depth plan. 2 storeys; 4-window range. Symmetrical 3-window range of c.1800 to right has stone porch with columns; decorative overlight with armorial glass over 6-panelled door flanked by glazed strips. 2-light casements over porch flanked by canted bays with casement windows: bay to left has 3-light leaded casements; parapet. One-storey bay, rendered with plank door and leaded casement, links main house to 2-storey range to left, rendered with hipped old tile roof. Early C19 brick wing to rear left, with canted oriel window, adjoins C17 wing of chalk rubble with timber lintels over sash and early C19 brick round-arched stair-light with ornamental leading and spandrel-pane of C16 Flemish glass depicting Calvary. Interior: late C15 moulded beam and post, and exposed timber framing in left room, which also has 4-centred cavetto-moulded doorway with trefoils and quatrefoils carved in spandrels. Central late C15 hall has beam with mortices for partition to left: c.1800 this hall was divided into dining room with fireplace to left and hall with concave ceiling and decorative fanlights over 2 doorways. Early C17 dog-leg staircase to rear, possibly reset, with turned balusters, moulded handrail and newel finial. First floor has fine room of c.1800 to rear left with fireplace and double-leaf doors. Roof: central lower king-strut truss with clasped purlins and curved windbraces in flanking wings, which were originally gabled to front before roof remodelled c.1800. In 1665, the owner, Thomas Eustace (gent), paid tax on 6 hearths, so making the house the third largest in the area after Stonor House and Pyrton House (q.v.). Described as "one of the prettiest abodes" in 1809, after William Buckle's alterations. The late C15 doorway is a rare traceried wood survival. (V.C.H.: Oxfordshire, Vol.VIII, pp.140-141; H.B. Weinstock, Hearth Tax Returns, Oxfordshire, 1665, Oxfordshire Record Society, Vol.XXI, (1940), p.19; M. Wood, The English Medieval House, 1965, p.343).

Listing NGR: SU6880595739