11 And 13, Newton Square

This is a shop, dating back to around the late 17th century, with alterations made around the early 19th century. It is located in Newton Square, Bampton. The front elevation is stone rubble, partially colourwashed and plastered, with a slate roof. The roof has gables at both ends of the front section and at the rear. There are end stacks to the front block – the left one projects, and the right one is corbelled. A further end stack is at the rear.

The building has a rectangular floor plan, with two rooms wide at the front (No. 11). Numerous internal partitions were being altered during a 1986 survey. Surviving elements of the original layout are of considerable interest; the ground floor rooms at the front are unheated, whereas the rooms above likely had late 17th-century fireplaces, suggesting an early shop with domestic quarters on the first floor. Around the early 19th century, the shop was remodelled with a ground floor projection incorporating a central entrance flanked by 20-pane shop windows with curved corners. Alterations have complicated understanding of the rear of the building. A first-floor room with a corrugated iron roof projects over a doorway, set back from the left end of the front block.

The front elevation has three storeys and a symmetrical three-bay arrangement, plus a set-back two-storey block on the left. The ground floor projection has a central door, and paired early 19th-century 20-pane shop windows to either side. The first floor has tripartite casements with 12 fixed panes in the centre and 4 panes in the outer lights. The second floor has a pair of 19th-century 2-light casements (6 panes per light) in the centre. The set-back left-hand block has a square-headed doorway below a 2-light casement (6 panes per light). Inside, a single timber column remains on the ground floor, which appears to have supported the floor above the likely unpartitioned early 19th-century shop. Both first-floor fireplaces retain substantial ovolo-moulded stopped timber lintels, likely dating to the late 17th century. Roof trusses of the front block, likely also late 17th-century, were initially inspected in 1986, then significantly altered by September 28th, 1986. No. 11 occupies a prominent position in Newton Square, facing the market area and with the churchyard and church behind.