Lyford Grange

House. Built around 1430 to 1480 for the More family, with alterations in the mid-16th century and a rear wing added for Thomas Yates. The exterior is roughcast over original timber framing, with visible close studding to the rear wall and part of the adjoining right wing. The left side wall is of limestone rubble, and the roof is covered in stone slates. A hipped roof and mid-16th century brick ridge stack, finished in the early to mid-18th century with a moulded top, are also present on the left. A courtyard plan exists, although a range to the rear (north-west) was demolished around 1817. The two-story, four-window front range features a 20th-century flat hood and a 19th-century moulded architrave over a 20th-century door in the central bay. Early 18th-century wood cross-windows with leaded lights are found in the outer bays, with a similar cross-window to the rear. A moulded wood cornice tops the windows. The right gable wall has 20th-century French windows set within a mid-16th century cavetto-moulded stone architrave. A moulded end stack is located on the rear gable wall of the truncated right wing. Inside, the former hall, now an attic space, contains a four-bay roof with arched-braced collar trusses, a central collar truss with mortices for decorative braces and ends of a moulded tie beam, cusp-chamfered windbraces, chamfered principals, and butt purlins. A timber-framed partition separates a two-bay room to the left, which has a queen post truss. A two-bay parlour is to the right, featuring moulded beams and a fine mid-16th century stone moulded fireplace set within a mid-16th century panelled wall on the first floor. A 16th-century plank door leads to a closet in front of the chimney stack, which has a three-light window divided by cavetto-moulded mullions over a low studded wall facing the hall. A similar mullion is visible on a blocked window to the front, and a deep embrasured window surround to the right suggests a possible original oriel. The roof of the right wing was remodelled in the 18th century. The site, originally a grange belonging to Abingdon Abbey, was acquired in 1538 and subsequently remodelled after 1540 by Thomas Yates, whose son Francis sheltered Edmund Campion of the Jesuit Mission in 1581. Campion was later executed at Tyburn. An Agnus Dei, dated 1578 and bearing the inscription of Pope Gregory XIII, found in the roof in 1959, commemorates this event.