Tudor House

Tudor House

This house on Clanfield Bampton Road was originally built around 1600, extended in the early 17th century and early 18th century, and has undergone later additions and alterations. It was formerly listed as The Gables and was latterly divided into cottages before being returned to a single house.

The building is constructed of roughly coursed limestone rubble with quoins, ashlar to the gables, and a stone slate roof. It follows an L-plan, with the circa 1600 range facing the road and early 17th- and 18th-century additions projecting at right angles to the rear on the right side. The main range is one storey and attic; the 18th-century part is two storeys.

The front elevation is dominated by three prominent gables, each with cavetto-moulded 3-light mullion windows and dripstones. The left and right gables have blind openings to their apexes, with possible traces of another to the centre. Projecting slate gutters (similar to those at Kelmscott Manor) run to the corners of each gable. The ground floor has two 5-light cavetto-moulded mullion windows with dripstones to left and right, and a 3-light window of the same type to the centre. Integral end stacks flank the main range, the left with a dripstone and the right with a dripstone and the outline of a former thatch roof visible. The left gable end has a 2-light mullion window with dripstone to the attic and an infilled square-headed bread oven arch at ground floor.

The rear range on the right comprises an early 18th-century part to the left, which has two 20th-century casements with wood lintels on the first floor and single casements flanking a lean-to porch with a half-glazed door to the left; an infilled entrance with an inserted window stands to the right. Truncated integral end stacks remain to the left. The early 17th-century part to the right has an infilled doorway to the left with a 19th-century casement inserted, and a 3-light chamfered wooden mullion window to the right. A hip-roofed eaves dormer sits between these sections.

Interior

The ground floor of the circa 1600 part was undergoing extensive renovation at the time of resurvey in May 1987, with floor surfaces and later partitions removed. A remodelled inglenook fireplace with truncated bread oven stands to the right. Several chamfered cross beams span the space: one to the right has stepped chamfer stops, and its joists have stepped ogee stops; one to the left has mortices and stave-holes for a studded partition with evidence for a doorway to the front; another has evidence of a close-studded partition and doorway in the same position; a deep-chamfered cross beam stands to the left. An inglenook fireplace at the left end wall has a stop-chamfered wood lintel and a bread oven (formerly opening from outside) to the left, with a winder staircase to the right. Wooden window seats sit in the splays of the left and right windows on the front wall. The back wall has an infilled doorway (now with an inserted window) opposite the centre front window and a plank door to the left, with evidence for another former doorway to the left. The roof space above shows a single-butt purlin collar truss roof in five bays.

The left ground-floor room of the 18th-century part has a chamfered spine beam with stepped stops, an inglenook fireplace with wood lintel and bread oven to the right, and a ledged plank door with H-L hinges to the left leading to an oak winder staircase. The floor is laid with stone flags. The right room has a deep-chamfered spine beam with stepped ogee stops.