Ye Anciente House

Ye Anciente House is an early 17th-century house, with alterations from the early 18th century. It is situated on the south side of Woodstock High Street and is now used as a house and two shops. The building is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with a gabled concrete tile roof, and has end stacks of rendered stone finished with 20th-century brick. It has an L-shaped plan with a rear right wing.

The main two-storey, double-gabled front has a five-window range. The central doorway dates to circa 1700 and contains a six-panelled door, with two glazed panels, set within a raised segmental-arched architrave featuring imposts. Wrought-iron scroll brackets support a bracketed pediment hood with carved foliate brackets finished with carved heads. A 20th-century bay window is positioned on the right. Above the door is an early 17th-century carved wood lintel, featuring a Sun Alliance Fire insurance plaque, and a late 18th-century horizontal-sliding sash window with thick glazing bars. Flat stone arches feature over the 18th-century six-pane sashes of the first floor to the right. The gabled outer bays have fine carved wood lintels over early 17th-century three-light wood-mullioned windows, along with finely carved barge boards with pendentives to the right.

At the rear, a central outshut incorporates early 17th-century carved wood lintels and a studded door. A mid-18th-century outshut is attached to the stair turret on the left, and features six-pane sashes. A two-storey bay to the rear right has a rendered stone stack finished in brick and a late 17th-century four-light wood-mullioned and transomed window with a carved wood lintel. A 17th-century one-storey range to the rear of this section has a chamfered bar-stopped timber lintel over a 17th-century plank door and an 18th-century horizontal-sliding sash with thick glazing bars.

Internally, the building contains boxed beams and winder stairs. An early 18th-century bolection-panelled room features a fireplace and bolection-panelled doors to the left. The rear wing includes ogee-stopped beams; a rear room, originally the back kitchen, has a large open fireplace with a wood bressumer. The first floor has 18th-century panelled doors; ogee-stopped beams; a moulded cornice, and mid-18th-century panelling in a room to the left. A mid-18th-century cupboard and fireplace are in a room to the right, which also has a stop-chamfered doorframe to the rear. The roof structure comprises collar-truss construction with butt purlins. Initials "W/T.E." carved on the front are likely those of Thomas Williams (died 1636 and mayor 1630-2) and his wife Elizabeth, whose family provided mayors and aldermen for Woodstock from the mid 16th century.