Westcote Manor And Adjoining Store

Westcote Manor and Adjoining Store

A large house of the 17th century with a wing dated 1722 (recorded on a lead rainwater head on the garden front) and 20th-century extensions. The building comprises several interconnected ranges of different periods, arranged in an L-shaped plan when viewed from the garden front.

The 17th-century range is constructed of limestone rubble with dressed stone quoins and is covered in stone slate roofing. It stands 1½ storeys high. On the garden front, it features one 3-light double-chamfered stone-mullioned casement, a gablet with a 2-light stone-mullioned casement containing early leaded panes and a stopped hood in the upper right, and a flat-chamfered Tudor-arched doorway with imposts and keystone (now blocked) with a 20th-century 2-light stone-mullioned casement inserted into the blocking. The remains of this range were partially burnt down in the early 18th century. The interior contains beams with ogee stops.

The 18th-century range is built in ashlar and stands 2 storeys with an attic. It displays a flat-chamfered plinth with rusticated quoins. The façade is lit by five windows containing 12-pane sashes with narrow glazing bars, moulded architraves and moulded sills. A band runs between floors, below a deep moulded eaves cornice. A central fielded 6-panel door with the upper two panels glazed is set within a moulded architrave with a coved hood supported on moulded stone brackets. The roof has artificial stone slate and ashlar stacks. The interior retains fielded 5-panel doors and fielded dados. Several carved Baroque-style fireplaces survive, with one classical-style fireplace inserted in the mid-20th century. A fine 18th-century dog leg staircase features barleytwist on vase balusters and fielded panelling.

A Cotswold-style extension to the right of the 18th-century range mirrors the 17th-century range but substitutes a 3-light stone-mullioned casement where the blocked doorway once stood.

The entrance front comprises a flat-roofed 20th-century 2-storey structure with 20th-century single and 2-light casements and a balustraded parapet. One 2-light stone-mullioned casement is cut from a single stone block with two small lancet-headed lights. An early plank door features moulded fillets and a reused 3-centred arched surround with foliate scrollwork in the spandrels and a deep moulded hood with engaged pendants either side. This surround derives from Banbury. A stairs projection to the right (possibly originally part of the 17th-century range) has a very tall stone-mullioned cross window and two 2-light hollow-chamfered stone-mullioned casements. A gabled extension to the early range projects forwards to the right and is linked via a wall approximately 2 metres high to an outbuilding.

The adjoining store is 1½ storeys with a possible former granary over part, accessed via four stone steps up to a plank door in the gable end. Three plank doors open in the side facing the house. Six pigeon holes with landings occupy the first floor on the same side. A plank door in a connecting wall retains the rails and stiles of a 17th-century door, with a carved surround to a blind-arched panel at the top.

The 20th-century extension to the left gable end is constructed of random squared and dressed limestone. A flat-roofed 20th-century extension to the rear of the 17th-century range is not of special interest.

The balustrading on the entrance porch and attached to the house is reused from Bowood House.