The Deanery

The Deanery is a former prebendal house, parts of which were originally built for use as chapels, now converted to residential use. It stands on the south-west side of Bampton Church Close.

The building has a complex history of construction and alteration spanning over eight centuries. The basement of the west wing dates to the late 11th or early 12th century, while the east wing belongs to the early or mid 12th century. The structure was subsequently altered in the later medieval period, the 16th and 17th centuries, and further extended in the 19th century to the west.

The building is constructed from coursed rubble limestone with some ashlar dressings. The roofs are of stone slate with stone copings to the main gable ends, and there are square ashlar chimney shafts. The plan is complex with wings extending to the west, east, and north. The building is predominantly two storeys with a basement, and part of it includes an attic storey.

The east wing features 13th-century buttresses to the gable end and 13th-century chamfered stone surrounds to small blocked basement lights. These lights have deep 12th-century splays with dressed quoins internally. Rubble stone arches from other medieval windows, possibly dating to the 12th century, survive high in the north wall. The remainder of the wing was remodelled in the late 16th or 17th century with stone mullion and transom windows of four to six lights, all bearing Tudor hoodmoulds. Internally, these windows are hollow chamfered. The north side of the east wing displays a gabled chimney with two shafts and a gabled dormer; a two-storey 20th-century porch with parapet occupies the angle with the north wing. The south side has a large gable containing an upper window and a small three-light window over a recessed 20th-century door.

The west wing contains a 16th or 17th-century gabled bay at its east end, with a 19th-century extension in matching style to the west. The 16th or 17th-century section has stone mullion windows with Tudor hoodmoulds; basement windows are two-light with chamfered mullions, while upper windows are ovolo-moulded and transomed. A gabled dormer is set into the east return. A large stack with five shafts stands at the centre of the wing.

The north wing is probably 16th or 17th-century in origin but was altered in the late 19th or early 20th century. It features 19th-century diagonal buttresses to the gable, restored stone mullion and transom windows, and hipped 20th-century roof dormers. Extensions in the north-west angle, partly roughcast, date to the 19th and 20th centuries and incorporate windows and a door in Tudor style.

The interior of the west wing's basement retains dressed stone jambs of two blocked windows with semi-circular heads dating to the 11th or 12th century, with traces of a third similar window visible. The basement of the east wing retains splayed jambs of three narrow 12th-century windows, jambs of a 12th-century cupboard, and three other narrow windows of later medieval date. Both basements may originally have served as chapels or a chapel undercroft. A tall 13th-century lancet window jambs survive high up in the west wall of the east wing.

Other interior features derive from the 16th and 17th-century remodelling and later alterations. Principal rooms have moulded and stopped stone fireplaces with four-centred arches, some with moulded cornices. The room over the basement in the west wing features heavy close-set ceiling joists supported on a massive, richly moulded cross beam. The centre of the house is occupied by a fine late 17th-century staircase arranged around a large open well. The stairs have heavy twisted balusters, a moulded handrail, an altered string, and large knob finials to the newel posts. Cupboards beneath the middle flight have doors fitted with re-used 17th-century moulded panels and butterfly hinges. The east doorway to the stair hall has an ovolo-moulded stone surround, while the west doorway has a similar wooden surround with moulded stops and a door with 17th-century moulded panels and strap hinges.