Friars Court Cottages

CLANFIELD A4095 SP2801-2901 (East side) 8/5 Nos.3 - 5 (inclusive), Friars Court Cottages II

Row of 3 cottages, incorporating remains of C13 building, probably a hospital chapel. Roughly coursed limestone rubble, rendered except for south wall; machine tile roof. Long rectangular building aligned south-west to north-east with C20 parallel gabled range and C20 gabled range at right-angles to north. Externally there are no architectural features earlier than c.1942 when the cottages were remodelled; the south wall is mainly post-medieval and the blocked features and straight joints in its upper parts are probably no earlier than C17 and may be later. A measured survey in February 1985 revealed the original north wall of the central and eastern cottages to be 0.68m thick and to survive to a height of c.4.9 metres. The cross wall between the central and western cottages is 0.93 metres thick. Although the south wall is mainly post-medieval, it contains a short section of different construction and much thicker (0.70 metres) that the rest, terminating in a splayed door-jamb. These fragments represent the north, south and west walls of a rectangular building measuring c.10.6 metres by 3.7 metres internally and c.4.9 metres in height with a doorway on its south side. This may be the chapel known to have been rebuilt for Nicholas de Totnes between 1237 and 1244 or possibly another building associated with it. A chapel on the site is first recorded in early C13 and would seem to have originated as a hospital chapel served by the nearby preceptory of Knights Hospitallers (q.v. under Friars' Court). Later it appears to have been reduced to chapel-of-east status, being rebuilt as such between 1237 and 1244. Properly controlled further investigation of the building might reveal architectural features at present (July 1987) covered by plaster. C20 additions to north are not of special architectural interest. (John Blair: Saint Leonard's Chapel, Clanfield, Oxoniensia: L(1985); pp209-14; D. Knowles and R.N. Hadcock: Medieval Religious Houses (1971): p302) [2294]

Listing NGR: SP2837301185