Langston Priory

CHURCHILL B4450 SP22SE (North side) 7/46 Langston Priory (former Langston Arms Hotel)

• II

Shown on O.S. map as Hotel. Hotel, now residential home for the elderly. Circa 1870 by George Devey for the Third Earl of Ducie with later alterations. Rock-faced regularly coursed and dressed limestone rubble with roughcast light timber frame to gables and jettied first floor of main range; artificial stone slate roof to front, original stone slates to rear and to low right wing. Complex plan in free Tudor style. 2 storeys and attic. Main range has projecting gabled wing to left with jettied attic supported on coving. C20 casement to attic. 2-light flat-faced mullion window to first floor and 3-light flat-faced mullioned and transomed window to ground floor. Similar mullioned and transomed windows to main range to left and right of 2-storey projecting gabled porch. Wide segmental-headed arch has panelled doors with fleur-delays pointed strap hinges leading to lobby with half-glazed ledged doors. 2-light flat-faced mullion windows lighting cellar to left and right of entrance. First floor of porch has quoin strips and Venetian window with original glazing removed. 3-light casements with original glazing removed to left and right. Possibly slightly later single-storey range attached to right has projecting gabled bay to right with coving like that on gabled wing to main range and 5-light mullioned and transomed window (centre lower light round-headed). Three 2-light flat-faced mullion windows to left, one to left and 2 to right of ramped buttress. A prominent feature of the building are the ridge, lateral and end stacks, all with red brick detached diagonal shafts in groups of 2 or 3, several rebuilt in original style in late C20. One of rear ranges has semi-circular bread oven projection with stone slate roof. Interior. Much altered in C20 but retains original dog-leg staircase with turned balusters. Situated by a principal railway junction, the hotel served as the headquarters of the local hunt. It had stabling for 23 hunters and guests of the Earl of Ducie and other visitors from London would bring their horses by train for a weekend's hunting. (Buildings of England: Oxfordshire: p674; Local information) [2488]

Listing NGR: SP2574222688