Cowshed At Manor Farm Approximately 30 Metres West Of Church Of St Peter

The cowshed at Manor Farm, built between 1844 and 1847, is located approximately 30 meters west of the Church of St Peter in Southrop. It is constructed from coursed rubble limestone with ashlar dressings and quoins, topped with a Welsh slate roof. The building has a wide-span rectangular plan measuring 53 feet, with a loft at the north end. Both the north and south gables are stone-coped and feature ball finials.

The north facade is marked by a large central round-arched opening, which has a similar arch above a transom in an interior opening set one bay back. The outer arch has vermiculated quoins and a cow's head keystone, with a circular louvred vent positioned centrally in the gable above. The first-floor casements and ground-floor hit-and-miss ventilators have plain surrounds and bracketed sills. The south gable mirrors this design with an arch above a small mucking-out doorway, which has a timber lintel below. The sides of the building feature mid-20th century fenestration.

Inside, the cowshed has a wide-span king post roof supported by outer struts and bracing. There are plank sliding doors leading from an inner porch to the cowshed, with the porch containing stairs to a first-floor gallery and doorways to flanking feed stores. Projecting eastward from the south end of the east wall is a single-storey range of pigsties with timber lintels over south-facing doors, adjacent to a lean-to with loose boxes.

The original use of this distinctive building, whether for fatstock or draught oxen, is unclear, but it is associated with the 'High Farming' period of English agriculture that began in the 1840s. The farmstead was owned by Wadham College, Oxford, from 1612 to 1926 and comprised 311 acres in 1840. The adjacent barn dates back to at least the early 18th century. This cowshed was built for C Royd Smith, who purchased part of the estate in 1842, lived at the Manor House, and sold his rights back to Wadham College in 1857-1858.