Radcot House Including Attached T Shaped Outbuilding

Radcot House including attached T-shaped outbuilding

House, dating to around 1660 with later additions and alterations. The main structure is built of uncoursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings and topped with a stone slate roof featuring moulded coped verges. The building rises to three storeys with an attic storey.

The front elevation presents three steeply-pitched gables, with the right gable projecting and housing the staircase. Fenestration throughout consists of flat-faced chamfered mullion windows with dripstones. The left gable has 4-light windows to the ground and first floors and a 3-light window to the second floor. The centre gable displays a 3-light window to the ground floor and 2-light windows to the first and second floors. An oval-shaped window with a moulded rectangular surround incorporating hollow spandrels and dripstone lights the attic. The left return of the right gable contains 2-light mullion windows on each floor.

The entrance is positioned at the junction between the left and centre gables, accessed through a 19th-century panelled door (glazed to the top) set within a contemporary shallow rectangular porch. The porch features a blank armorial shield and embattled parapet. External end stacks, rebuilt in the 19th century, have dripstones and moulded capping to ashlar shafts. Similar ridge stacks between the right gable and main range display paved and rebated shafts.

A two-storey lean-to occupies the angle to the right of the right gable, fitted with 2-light mullion windows with dripstones to each floor. The right gable end of the main range is adjoined by a low outbuilding (now the kitchen), linked to a T-shaped single-storey outbuilding. The T-shaped outbuilding features a 20th-century three-light mullion window to its front gable and a 19th-century triple casement with chamfered wood lintel to the left return.

The rear of the main range, said to be the original front of the building, presents a symmetrical elevation with three gables and mullion windows on each floor. Windows here are generally 3-light except for 4-light windows to the ground and first floors of the right gable. Oval-shaped windows similar to those on the front light the attic. A boarded door opens to the far left.

Interior

The left ground floor room contains a chamfered spine beam and late 19th and early 20th-century square and rectangular panelling, which may incorporate some earlier pieces. A stone fireplace on the left dates mainly to the early 20th century, though parts of its jambs may be 17th century. Infilled fireplaces are present at a large chimney breast facing the entrance. The room to the right features a chamfered ceiling beam and a fireplace with a probably 18th-century moulded stone surround. The right room of the main range has a stone-flag floor and a chamfered spine beam with stepped ogee stops. A wide winder staircase in the projecting gable ascends to the attic.

The first floor right room of the main range contains a moulded stone fireplace with chamfered ceiling beams throughout this floor and extending to the second floor. The double-purlin roof spans three unequal bays and features steep-pitched chamfered principal rafters with yokes rising from tie beams at the level of the lower purlins.

The outbuilding serving as the present kitchen, attached to the right gable end of the main range, has a double-purlin roof with central collar and tie beam truss. A deep-chamfered cross beam displays slots indicating where joists have been removed. The T-shaped outbuilding, now converted to domestic accommodation, contains an exposed cambered tie beam.