Pope's Tower Approximately 35 Metres South East of Harcourt House is a Grade I listed building in the West Oxfordshire local planning authority area, England. A C15 Chapel.
Pope's Tower Approximately 35 Metres South East of Harcourt House
- WRENN ID
- turning-ledge-sienna
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- West Oxfordshire
- Constituency
- Witney MP: Charlie Maynard (LD)
- Country
- England
- Type
- Chapel
- OS grid reference
- SP 416 056
- Coordinates
- 51.7479, -1.39837
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
This is a former chapel, built around 1470-71, likely by William Orchard for Sir Robert Harcourt. It is constructed of limestone ashlar with a roof that is not visible. The building comprises a four-story tower with a nave and a two-story bay with a chancel to the right. A keyed, hollow-chamfered arched doorway is topped by an eared architrave, leading to C16 panelled doors. Above, there are two two-light, cinquefoil-headed windows. An offset buttress is on the right, with a moulded cornice featuring gargoyles and an octagonal crenellated stone stack. The tower has hood moulds over one- and two-light, cinquefoil-headed windows, and square-headed upper-lights. A three-light panel-tracery window is located to the east. A crenellated parapet with gargoyles runs along the top. A stair turret is at the rear, featuring slit lights and a similar parapet. Similar windows are on the sides and rear, along with a hood mould over a late C15 four-centred, hollow-chamfered rear doorway.
Inside, the chancel has a fan vault supported by head corbels, and a hollow-chamfered chancel arch with quatrefoil spandrels. The nave has quartered and moulded beams to a panelled ceiling, originally painted with red and gold to the beams and gold stars on a blue ground. A pointed arched doorway with a plank door leads to stone newel stairs, with similar doorways and ancient plank doors. The room above the nave contains moulded beams and a moulded stone fireplace. The tower has early C17 panelling and a similar stone fireplace in the first-floor room, a moulded beam in the room above, and late C17 bolection panelling in the third-floor room.
Historically, the chapel was attached to the now-demolished medieval manor house (circa 1750). The nave was previously used by servants. A squint, now blocked, allowed the family assembled in the room above to view the altar. The tower may have provided lodgings for a priest or retainers. Its design is comparable to structures at Minster Lovell Hall and Magdalene College, Oxford, also designed by William Orchard. The tower is named after Alexander Pope, who resided here in 1717-18 and utilized the upper room to translate the fifth volume of Homer's "Iliad."
Local climate
Pope's Tower Approximately 35 Metres South East of Harcourt House receives an average of 750 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 72% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 65% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 32 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 59% 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.
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