Wytham Abbey and attached wall

Wytham Abbey is a country house, now converted into flats, with an attached wall. The core of the building dates to the late 15th and 16th centuries, originally constructed for the Harcourt family. It was significantly remodelled and partly rebuilt between 1809 and 1810 for the Fifth Earl of Abingdon, with designs by Thomas Cundy. The house is constructed of limestone ashlar, with gabled stone slate roofing, although some areas have Welsh slate and 20th-century tiles and lead roofs.

The house’s original design centred around two courtyards, which were infilled in the early 19th century, creating a triple-depth plan. The main facade is two storeys and an attic, with a nine-window range. The three-storey gatehouse, located in the third bay from the left, features offset corner buttresses, a Tudor-arched doorway with studded doors, late 15th-century three-light oriel windows with cinquefoil heads, a moulded string course with gargoyles, and crenellated parapets. A diagonal stair turret is positioned to the left and a larger crenellated stair turret to the right. To the left of the gatehouse is a two-window range with early 19th-century three-light mullioned and transomed round-headed windows, and two front gables connected by a crenellated parapet. Six windows span the right side, featuring late 15th/16th-century two- and three-light mullioned round-headed windows, also with a crenellated parapet linking to three symmetrical gables. A recessed bay is attached to the right, at a right angle to a crenellated limestone rubble wall with an octagonal ashlar pier. Adjacent to this is a similar three-window range and an early 19th-century service range with a gabled Welsh slate roof.

At the rear of the main range, late 15th/16th-century two-light round-headed windows and doorway are visible, along with late 15th-century three-light round-headed mullioned and transomed windows above similar two- and three-light mullioned windows, flanking a canted bay window with a five-light window with a crenellated parapet. An early 19th-century four-window range to the left displays similar mullioned and transomed windows, with projecting gabled bays linked by a loggia in the side wall.

The interior includes an early 19th-century entrance hall leading to a staircase hall with an open-well staircase. The gatehouse contains late 15th/16th-century reset armorial stained glass, a late 15th-century fireplace with corbel heads to a trefoil-panelled shaped overmantle displaying Harcourt arms, and a newel staircase featuring original stone treads at the top. A panelled room with a marble fireplace and plaster ceiling is also from the early 19th century, as is a room to the right of the staircase displaying Abingdon arms. Early 19th-century doors and fireplaces are found throughout. Flat 3 to the left of the gatehouse has a large mid-19th-century marble fireplace and late 16th-century reset stained glass panels including three Tudor roses, a kneeling figure, and four heraldic panels with the initials IE and ER. Four 18th-century stained glass panels depict domestic scenes and an Annunciation scene.

The manor house was acquired by Sir Richard Harcourt in 1459, passing to the Norreys family in the late 16th century and later to James Bertie, who became Earl of Abingdon in 1682. Following remodelling in 1811, the south courtyard, with surrounding domestic wings, was built over to incorporate the entrance hall and staircase.