The Great House

This is a substantial town mansion, likely dating to the late 17th century. It first appears in the Burgage Rent Roll of 1685, and is constructed of ashlar stone with chamfered quoins, topped with a hipped roof of Cotswold stone. The architectural style is subdued English Baroque, incorporating local characteristics.

The main house is arranged over two storeys, a built-up attic (appearing as a third storey), and a basement, comprising seven bays. It features a moulded plinth above the basement, a flat string course above the ground floor windows, a cornice, and a crenellated parapet adorned with alternating vases and flaming urn finials. A central pediment sits upon the cornice, bearing a Tudor rose with a glazed centre within the tympanum.

The windows are sash windows with single vertical glazing bars, set within moulded architraves with moulded sills. On the ground floor, these windows have alternating segmental and triangular pediments above pulvinated friezes; the central window has garland drapery to its frieze and pediment, supported on brackets attached to slender pilasters. Attic windows are alternating circular and octagonal shapes, set within square architraves with panelled spandrels. Bullseye openings are found in the basement, also within bolection architraves with panelled spandrels. A 20th-century six-panel door, approached by four D-plan steps, is centrally positioned beneath an architrave, pulvinated frieze, and segmental pediment, slightly recessed below the ground floor window cornices.

To the left of the main house is a lower, two-storey-and-basement wing constructed of ashlar at its base, transitioning to coursed and dressed rubble above. The string course from the main house continues across the ground and first floors of this wing, punctuated by pendant drips over the windows, two per floor. These windows are of three-light design with rebated, chamfered mullions, with the ground floor window on the right hand side having been altered to a sash window. A moulded doorway is positioned to the right, leading to a six-panel door; a plain two-light opening is to the left. The gable ends are ashlar with a crenellated parapet, pine-cone finials, chamfered quoins, and a cornice interrupted by small corbels supporting a heavy chimney, which itself features moulded offsets and crenellation. The outer attic windows are bullseye shaped, set within panelled spandrels, moulded architraves, and a flat linking cill string.

The east return of the building displays a rainwater head bearing the initials "CxR" above the letter "F" (possibly referring to the Fettiplace family). Two extensions are located to the rear of the main house. An extension to the east has a parallel ridge, three windows with pulvinated friezes and a plain parapet, linked to the main house by a two-bay block dating from approximately 1710 to 1720. A blocked doorway in the west gable of this extension exhibits a double hollow chamfer moulding, with a bracketed shell hood featuring a foliage face on a central ornamental bracket. The west extension is gabled and features three windows with rusticated surrounds on the first floor. A small, parallel-ridged kitchen block, likely of single storey and attic height, is situated to the east.

The Great House is considered a fine and imposing burgage house, representative of the late 17th century and demonstrating the influence of the Wren school of architecture. While typically attributed to Christopher Kempster, it is also speculated that the building may be the work of William Byrd. The similarity of its chimneys to those of Kingham House, approximately seven miles north, is notable.