The Dower House is a Grade II listed building in the Vale of White Horse local planning authority area, England. First listed on 9 February 1966. House. 3 related planning applications.
The Dower House
- WRENN ID
- empty-clay-sable
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Vale of White Horse
- Constituency
- Oxford West and Abingdon MP: Layla Moran (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 9 February 1966
- Type
- House
- Address
- The Dower House, Wytham, OX2 8QA
- OS grid reference
- SP 475 086
- Coordinates
- 51.77415, -1.31156
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Dower House is a house dating from the late 17th century to early 18th century, which was refronted in the mid-19th century. It is constructed from uncoursed limestone rubble with a roughcast front and features a gabled roof made of artificial stone slate. The house has symmetrical stone end stacks with a moulded drip course, and the stone has been rebuilt in the 20th century. It has an L-plan layout with a rear left wing, standing two storeys tall with an attic and a three-window range.
The entrance features a mid-19th century half-glazed door with a bracketed hood that includes a sundial inscribed with "FS 1859." To the left, there is a two-storey-and-attic square bay window with chamfered wood-mullioned lights, while to the right, a canted bay window has narrow sashes set in chamfered stone-mullioned lights. Above these, there are two- and three-light stone-mullioned windows, and a similar two-light window is found in the gabled roof dormer.
To the left of the main house is a late 18th-century cottage made of limestone rubble with gabled stone slate roofs, and to the right is the mid-19th century range. The two-storey rear wing, built with similar materials, has two mid-19th century three-light Gothic casements. Inside, the house features cased and chamfered beams, and a mid-19th century spiral staircase with stick balusters.
Local climate
The Dower House 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 77% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 70% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 50% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 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:
- Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 3 applications
- 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
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.
this building 1 similar nearby listed buildings