Oxenham Farmhouse, Including Outbuilding At South East End

Oxenham Farmhouse, including Outbuilding at South-East End

A house, formerly a farmhouse, probably dating from the late 17th century and remodelled in the late 18th or early 19th century. The building is constructed of stone rubble with roughcast rendering on the north-west and south-west elevations. The south-east end of the outbuilding is largely of cob, with some sections rebuilt in the mid 20th century. The house has a slated roof, hipped at each end, with brick chimneystacks on each gable wall. The outbuilding is similarly roofed in slate with a hip at the south-east end.

The building follows a double-depth plan with a wide central through-passage and a winding staircase at the rear of the passage. To the right of the passage is a large front room with a smaller room behind it, possibly a former dairy. To the left is one large room believed to have been the kitchen, which has at some point been divided into three sections with substantial remains of studwork from one partition still visible.

The house has two storeys with a garret. The main front elevation faces south-west and is symmetrical, comprising three windows wide with a centre doorway. The windows are box-framed sashes, slightly recessed, with the sashes themselves probably dating from the late 18th or early 19th century. Each sash contains 8 panes, except those in the centre second-storey window which have 6 panes. The doorway is fitted with a 6-panelled late 18th or early 19th century door bearing a cast-iron knocker, with a contemporary wooden porch above featuring a flat moulded top supported by plain slender columns with square, unmoulded capitals.

The north-east front is mostly lit by 19th century casement windows, though the two left-hand windows in the second storey are earlier, with slender wood mullions and rectangular leaded panes. The left window is of 3 lights and the other of 2 lights. The left-hand ground-storey window is of 2 lights with slender, flat-splay wood mullions, cut back externally to accommodate a 19th century casement. The gable wall facing the road contains no windows, but immediately south-west of it, against the garden wall, stands a low stone rubble mounting block of 3 steps. The outbuilding's gable wall has two slit windows, the south-west example being a mid 20th century insertion.

The interior contains several good 17th century fireplaces, exposed in the 20th century. Although showing considerable signs of alteration, they appear to remain in their original positions rather than being made up of re-used material. The former kitchen features a large fireplace with a chamfered wood lintel having a scroll-stop at the right-hand end. This fireplace has been blocked on the left side and extended on the right, probably when the room was subdivided. Beneath the rear window is an old fixed wooden bench.

The staircase retains old plank doors with wrought-iron strap-hinges on both floors, and several other old plank doors survive on the upper floor. The north-west front room contains a small fireplace with an ogee-moulded wood lintel having bar-stops, with one jamb of granite featuring a bold three-quarter-round moulding. The small fireplace in the south-east front room has an identical granite jamb but a slightly curved plain wood lintel.

The roof timbers were probably replaced in the late 18th or early 19th century, with collars pegged and nailed to the faces of the principal rafters. The upper storey of the outbuilding has been converted into living accommodation, while the ground storey remains unaltered with an earth floor. There is no sign of a central drain or other evidence to suggest it was ever a shippon. No old title deeds remain with the property according to the owner.