Garden Wall Attached Summerhouse and Privy at Kelmscott Manor is a Grade II listed building in the West Oxfordshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 30 March 1989. Garden wall, summerhouse, privy.

Garden Wall Attached Summerhouse and Privy at Kelmscott Manor

WRENN ID
lunar-newel-briar
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
West Oxfordshire
Constituency
Witney MP: Charlie Maynard (LD)
Country
England
Date first listed
30 March 1989
Type
Garden wall, summerhouse, privy
OS grid reference
SU 251 989
Coordinates
51.6883, -1.63806
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The garden wall with an attached summerhouse and privy at Kelmscott Manor dates from the mid to late 18th century. The wall is made of uncoursed limestone rubble with coping, featuring ramps near the corners on the west side, extending to the north side and the northern part of the east side. The south side and southern part of the east side are constructed from squared and coursed rubble, while a low stone wall with iron railings completes the remainder of the west side. This structure encloses a garden area that measures approximately 70 by 40 meters, shaped like a parallelogram.

The principal entrance is located at the south end of the east side, featuring a gateway with a raised narrow gable along the wall's axis. This gateway includes a plank door set in a moulded surround, with what appear to be reused pointed strap hinges. Just a few meters north of this point, where the regularly coursed stonework transitions to rubble, stands a polygonal summerhouse, likely from the late 19th century. The summerhouse is open to the garden side and supported by wooden posts, topped with a stone slate roof and a stone ball finial.

At the south-west corner of the wall, immediately north-west of the service range of Kelmscott Manor, is a privy, probably built in the early 19th century. This privy is made of rendered uncoursed limestone rubble, scored to mimic dressed stone, and features a pyramidal stone slate roof with overhanging eaves and a stone ball finial. It has a square plan with a rounded south-west corner, a boarded door with a bracketed lean-to hood on the east side, and a leaded latticed window on the north side. Inside, it contains a triple-seater earth closet.

Local climate

Garden Wall Attached Summerhouse and Privy at Kelmscott Manor receives an average of 780 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 62% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 60% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 52% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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Nearby listed buildings

  1. Kelmscott Manor Grade I 23 m
  2. Garden Cottage Grade II 47 m
  3. Stone Slab Fence Enclosing and Dividing Gardens of Numbers 1 and 4 Manor Cottages Continuing to South East Along Road to Garden Cottage Grade II 119 m
  4. 1 and 4, Manor Cottages Grade II* 143 m
  5. 2 and 3, Manor Cottages Grade II 183 m
  6. Lower House Grade II 260 m
  7. Plough Cottage the Plough Inn Grade II 275 m
  8. Jobs Close Grade II 295 m
  9. Village Hall Grade II 367 m
  10. Church Cottage Grade II 499 m