Oxhouse at Dovecote Farm

This is a cattle shelter, constructed around 1700 and notable for its unusual horseshoe-shaped plan. The building is primarily constructed from local yellow-brown sandstone, with some brick repairs and alterations. The roof is now corrugated metal. The floors consist of a mix of concrete and cobblestones.

The structure is U-shaped, with the open end facing south. The ‘U’ is formed by two straight ranges running north to south, connected by a curved range at the northern end, enclosing a small yard. The straight ranges feature curved corners at the southern ends of their outer elevations. The overall dimensions are approximately 4.2 meters wide and 20.5 meters long, with a total width of 16 meters including both ranges and the enclosed yard. The walls are approximately 0.5 meters thick. The River Nene is immediately to the west, and a track runs east of the building, connecting north to Heyford Mill and south to Nether Heyford.

The building is single-storey with a modern metal pitched roof. The walls are generally regularly coursed of rough stone, with occasional moulded pieces, likely re-used. Each range originally had four horizontal windows, though these have now been bricked up. The windows in the southernmost bays are half the width of the others. The survival of cast-iron pintle hinges indicates that the windows were originally shuttered externally. A doorway in the centre of the north curved elevation is now blocked with stone rubble externally and concrete blocks internally.

The yard-facing elevation is open, supported by timber posts that divide the interior into bays. Modern replacement posts are present, although one sits upon an old stone pad, suggesting earlier posts may have also had such foundations. A vertical niche of unknown purpose is recessed into the external walls of the straight ranges.

Internally, sections of the original cobblestone floor remain, with the remainder concrete. The back wall flares outwards at its base to form a buttress. The roof trusses are constructed from split telegraph poles, supported by modern posts. A single rowlock course of bricks sits beneath the wallplate. Some of the horizontal timbers are re-used older pine, although their original source is unclear. A rough wooden fence is attached to the back posts. Modern brick walls are present, one along the north-west corner of the yard and another in the north-eastern bay of the curved range, abutting the interior wall at a right angle.