Woodperry House and the Old Brewhouse with Entrance Screen

Woodperry House and The Old Brewhouse with Entrance Screen

A country house built between 1728 and 1731 for John Morse by mason William King, possibly to designs by William Townesend of Oxford. The house was extended in 1880 by F. Cobb of Oxford. It is constructed of limestone ashlar with Welsh-slate and old plain-tile roofs.

The main house follows a double-depth plan with linked pavilions, rising to two storeys plus attics and semi-basement. The principal front is five windows wide and features rusticated clasping pilasters, storey-bands, and plain segmental-headed architraves. The central bays break forward beneath a heavy triangular pediment containing a blind window, flanked by a parapet with recessed panels. The central doorway has eight-panel double-leaf doors beneath a stone pedimented canopy on Tuscan columns (added later) and a broad flight of steps. The slate hipped roof carries pedimented roof dormers and stone stacks flanking a central lead flat.

The 1880 extensions consist of pedimented flanking three-bay wings in similar style, recessed behind five-arched single-storey quadrants with linked imposts and projecting keyblocks below a band and plain parapet. The right quadrant remains an open loggia with similar blind arcading on its rear wall and a cantilevered stone stair fitted with an early eighteenth-century wrought-iron balustrade.

Flanking the entrance court are one-storey pavilions plus attics, each featuring plain openings with corresponding recessed panels in the parapets, tiled hipped roofs with three pedimented roof dormers. The stables to the right are topped with a wooden cupola containing a clock. An early eighteenth-century wrought-iron entrance screen completes the court enclosure, featuring central segmental-headed gates with scroll and repousse work, excellent quality scrollwork pilasters, and an elaborate overthrow incorporating Morse's monogram. The railings return to the pavilions, sitting on a low ashlar wall and punctuated by further scrollwork pilasters.

The rear elevation of the main block mirrors the front, except for a plain Tuscan doorcase. The flanking nineteenth-century wings are only slightly recessed but break forward markedly at the pedimented outer bays.

The interior is richly decorated. The hall to the left is separated from the entrance hall by a triple-arched screen and features fluted Ionic pilasters on fielded panelling supporting a deep entablature with pulvinated oak-leaf frieze and modillion cornice. The contemporary marble fireplace has a carved overmantel, probably of mid-eighteenth century date, with consoles supporting a framed oil painting of Westminster Abbey dated 1748. Two elaborate doorcases have eared architraves and segmental pediments.

The entrance hall and the soffit of the stair rising within it are even more richly carved with elaborate geometrical panelling. The stair has a ramped and wreathed handrail, three carved and fluted balusters per tread, and the landings are inlaid with stars. The panelled walls feature carved guilloche ornament. The former drawing room (now kitchen) retains enriched egg-and-dart window architraves and a carved doorcase, though its panelling is now at Ditchley Park. Other rooms contain dentil cornices and original marble fireplaces, with fielded panelling extending even to the attics. Thomas Fawsett was the joiner. The stable wing contains a contemporary stair with turned balusters and fielded panelling.

The left pavilion, known as The Old Brewhouse and now a separate dwelling, was not inspected at the time of listing.