Fletcher'S House (Oxfordshire County Museum)

Fletcher's House, now the Oxfordshire County Museum, is a house dating back to 1613/14, originally built for Thomas Brown, an alderman. It was extended to the right and refronted around 1795 for Thomas Walker. The building is constructed of coursed limestone rubble, with stone ashlar to the right extension and a stucco front. It has a gabled stone slate roof and brick end stacks.

The house's original plan was of a double-depth design. The main facade is three storeys high and features a four-window range. To the left of centre are two doorways, each with an overlight set in a moulded stone architrave; one has a 20th-century window and the other a six-panelled door. The windows are tripartite sashes with glazing bars, with mid-19th century three-pane sashes to the left of the door and to the attic. A moulded stone cornice sits beneath the parapet. A right-side wall from the early 19th century, with a three-window range, features six-pane sashes in similar architraves, and a semi-circular arched architrave to a sash and 20th-century door with a decorative fanlight. A tripartite sash is located at the rear right.

The rear wall of the 17th-century building has three gables and includes timber lintels over six- and eight-pane sashes. A renewed three-light cross window is visible in the attic.

Inside, the original building retains stone flag floors and early 19th-century panelled doors. The right-side block has a dog-leg staircase with a landing, featuring cast-iron balusters, a wreathed handrail and stone treads. Rooms within this section have early 19th-century plaster friezes, and a fine Adam-style fireplace with Ionic engaged columns is found in the rear of the building. A room above has another fine fireplace with side paterae and reeded jambs.

The original 17th-century building features chamfered and stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops on the first floor, and ogee-moulded beams with ogee stops on the ground floor. A dog-leg staircase with a landing is located at the rear, and a timber-framed partition enclosed stairwell contains a 17th-century dog-leg staircase with heavy turned balusters on a closed string and newel posts with large ball finials. A portion of the original collar-truss roof with butt purlins remains.

A drawing from 1777 illustrates that the 17th-century house was originally gabled to the front. The house was likely given to Thomas Walker, the Duke of Marlborough's auditor and Woodstock town clerk.