Langley Farmhouse

SHIPTON-UNDER-WYCHWOOD SP 21 NE 3/43 Langley Farmhouse - - II* Fragmentary royal hunting lodge. Partly circa 1478 and partly C18, largely remodel- led 1858. Rubble stone with Cotswold stone roofs. Rectangular main range with lower L-plan (1858) extension to south-east. Tudor and free Tudor style. The east (entrance) front is 2½ storeys with gabled porch and half-glazed door; the main interest is two reset panels with HE (Henry VII Tudor and Elizabeth of York) and, now mostly broken, entwined roses between the floors. The main (south) range is in 3 parts with a definite break roughly left of centre and a less evident break where the gabled extension to the right is. One range of moulded arch stair lights to left (and a further one in return gable) and a shallow 2-storey angled bay with 2-light mullion windows with moulded arch heads and ferramenta. To right of this, ie to right of the emphatic break, are 3 windows, somewhat irregular, cross mullion type with C20 casements, some have the keyed lintels and reveals of the 1858 work, but 2 on first floor to left retain early C18 appearance. The right-hand 1858 part breaks forward and has mouldings to cross-mullion windows. The rear is irregular partly 3-storeyed and with a heavy partly moulded wall-plate. Interior: the west bay is of great interest. On the ground and first floors there are 2 doorways into the east wall; it is divided into two, the south part being for a (? redesigned) staircase whose main feature is "HE" (Henry VII Tudor and Elizabeth of York) with entwined roses in the soffit of the oriel bay window; the north part which is entered from arched doorways off the stairs, has a room on each floor; on the first floor with a high moulded cornice presumably of the late C15. This building is sited in a complex of earthworks which suggest that it is only a small part of a range stretching north-south. In the C15 the manor had belonged to the Nevilles; it passed to the Crown in 1478 and much building was carried out by Henry VII; the Court resided there as late as 1614. Associated earthworks are AM Oxon 122. M Groves: The History of Shipton-under-Wychwood (1934).

Listing NGR: SP2952715510