King John'S House

King John's House is a detached house of mixed medieval and later date, positioned on the south side of Tollard Royal village. The building incorporates 13th-century, 14th-century, 16th-century and 17th-century elements.

The structure is built of close-studded timber frame with flint and limestone, covered by tiled roofs with diagonally-set brick stacks. It originated as a 13th-century hall house, to which a 17th-century east service cross wing and a western solar range were added. The building presents as two storeys with a three-window front elevation.

The principal front displays a 17th-century brick porch with a medieval door set in a round-arched opening and a hipped tiled roof, positioned to the left. Above it sits a cross window. To the right is a 16th-century stone and timber-framed stair projection containing a two-light wooden mullioned window. A 17th-century flint and timber-framed cross range projects to the left, featuring a cross window at ground floor level and a three-light mullioned and transomed window on the first floor. To the right is an early 20th-century flint-covered passage giving access to a 20th-century annexe with leaded casements.

The left return elevation features steps and a 20th-century porch serving the service areas, a cross window and two-light mullioned window at ground floor, and two cross windows on the first floor with leaded glass. The rear garden front of the hall range contains two narrow lights with depressed arched heads in splayed pointed openings and a five-light chamfered mullioned window. The solar range to the left has a 19th-century three-light mullioned window. The first floor displays two pairs of pointed lights with simple imposts and two cross windows. The 17th-century cross wing has a cross window at ground floor and a three-light mullioned and transomed window above. Two gabled dormers project from the hall roof, and grouped diagonally-set stacks rise from the cross wing roof, with grouped square-set stacks to the left range. A tiled and timber bellcote crowns the ridge. The right return shows a narrow light with depressed arched head at ground floor, a pointed chamfered doorway at first floor level with a chamfered square light beside it. The attic contains four-light and two-light mullioned windows. A 16th-century solar with a large external brick and limestone stack featuring offsets and two-light mullioned windows at both ground and first floor levels stands to the left. A 1920s butler's annexe with gabled front is attached to the left side.

Internally, the entrance hall features chamfered beams with ogee stops and a fine 16th-century carved fireplace bressumer on stone jambs. Stone Tudor-arched openings lead to the services, solar range and stair hall. The dining room in the service wing contains reset 17th-century raised panelling with an arabesque frieze above an open fireplace with chamfered lintel and chamfered beams. Moulded planked doors occupy the ground floor, whilst some 17th-century panelled doors with cock's head hinges appear on the first floor. The medieval windows of the hall and solar range feature widely splayed openings. The 17th-century open-well stairs have carved splat balusters, closed string, square newels with ball finials and a heavy moulded handrail, beneath a barrel-vaulted ceiling. The north-west bedroom displays reset 17th-century panelling, a chamfered open fireplace lintel with rounded corners on chamfered stone jambs, and a herringbone brick back, with a reset overmantel carved with guilloche ornament. King John's bedroom retains a Tudor-arched fireplace surround, formerly open to the roof, and rib-panelled roof structure. The first floor hall shows deeply chamfered beams with run-out stops and a Tudor-arched fireplace surround. Other bedrooms contain reset panelling. The roof structure comprises a five-bay roof over the hall range and a two-bay panelled roof to the solar.

General Pitt-Rivers used the house as a museum during the late 19th century.