Model Farm, Engine House and Attached Buildings Approximately 15 Metres South South West of Farmhouse is a Grade II listed building in the South Oxfordshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 3 April 1987. Engine house.

Model Farm, Engine House and Attached Buildings Approximately 15 Metres South South West of Farmhouse

WRENN ID
plain-shingle-falcon
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
South Oxfordshire
Constituency
Henley and Thame MP: Freddie van Mierlo (LD)
Country
England
Date first listed
3 April 1987
Type
Engine house
OS grid reference
SU 695 971
Coordinates
51.66859, -0.99594
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

This is a model farm, engine house, and attached buildings, constructed in 1856 by William Wilkinson for the Earl of Macclesfield. The complex is located approximately 15 metres south-south-west of the farmhouse. The engine house is built of Flemish bond brick with flared headers and diapering, featuring a double-gabled Welsh slate roof and a central ridge stack finished in engineering brick. The plan includes a covered way, a sawing shed, a carpenters' workshop, an engine room, a boiler house, thrashing and chaff-cutting rooms, and associated buildings arranged in a T-plan.

The two-storey engine house has a four-window first-floor range. The covered way has cast-iron spandrels beneath a wall plate. The main façade has a gauged-brick, chamfered segmental-arch over a double entry to the left and a similar flat arch over a partly blocked entry to the right. Similar segmental arches are above the first-floor casements.

Inside, remains of the steam-driven sawmill, including the base and some driving-wheels and belts, survive to the left. Remains of chaff-cutting and threshing machinery to the right include a mid-19th century twelve horsepower steam engine by Ruston, identifiable by its name plate. Attached buildings to the right incorporate a woolstore/granary over cartsheds at each end, flanking a central sheaf room and a processing/storage block. The main front features a long, two-storey central block with three central gabled bays, incorporating chamfered segmental-arched two-light casements above a mid-19th century sliding door in the centre and similar sliding doors in the outer bays. Flanking cartsheds have chamfered archways and segmental arches over horizontal sliding sashes. The right gable end has external steps leading to a bell over a doorway to the granary. A reyard was formerly located at the rear of the engine house.

Wilkinson also designed farm buildings at Longleat, Wiltshire, and Kirtlington, north of Oxford. Contemporary accounts praised the use of steam power for various purposes, including threshing corn, cutting chaff, crushing oats and beans, grinding corn, supplying water via iron piping throughout the homestead, and sawing timber.

Local climate

Model Farm, Engine House and Attached Buildings Approximately 15 Metres South South West of Farmhouse sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 730 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 80% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 78% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 38 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 73% of listed buildings. Of these, 17 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

Sign in or create a free account to unlock:

  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • No related consent applications matched
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Create free account

Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.

Similar buildings

The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.

Nearby listed buildings

  1. Model Farmhouse Grade II 44 m
  2. The Summer House (The Orangery) Grade II* 965 m
  3. The Old Rectory Grade II 1.1 km
  4. West Lodge and Attached Gates, Gatepiers and Wall Grade II 1.2 km
  5. Shirburn Castle Grade I 1.2 km
  6. Church of All Saints Grade II 1.2 km
  7. Manor Farm Cottage Grade II 1.3 km
  8. The Plough Inn Public House Grade II 1.3 km
  9. The Old Smithy Grade II 1.3 km
  10. Manor Farmhouse Grade II 1.3 km