Old Manor Farmhouse

Details

COTTISFORD MAIN STREET SP5831 (South side) 15/7 Old Manor Farmhouse 26/11/51 (Formerly listed as Manor House)

GV I

Manor house, now house. C13/C14, altered and enlarged in C16 and C17, Space between the projecting wings on the west or rear filled in in C19/C20. Parlour built to rear of hall on west in the C16. First floor hall and solar ceiled over in C16 and roof rebuilt. C20 alterations and repairs. Coursed limestone rubble and squared coursed limestone. Steeply pitched slate roof. Stone end and ridge stacks. First floor hall and half-H plan originally 2 storeys plus attics and cellar. Rear or west elevation. Irregular fenestration. 4 gabled projecting wings. From left. Small wing to west of solar was probably garderobe and has a C14 crested octagonal stack likely to be a vent since it does not connect to a fireplace. Two rectangular, C14 windows, Second projecting wing is the C19/C20 infill and has a re-used C15 two-light window. Third projecting wing led from the medieval first floor hall and has one small C15 window and now contains the C20 staircase. Fourth wing has a 2-light restored window on first floor. Present entrance contained in C20 lean-to. North elevation facing road. First floor has two C15 trefoiled lancets to former solar. Above in the north gable a window of c.1200 with 2 arched lights. South elevation. Entrance to right has C20 door with hood. 2 renewed windows to left and 3 to first floor. Attic gable has a C18 window with small leaded lights. East elevation has four 2-light C20 imitation wood mullioned and transomed windows. Interior. Ground floor plan of 16 hall and C16 kitchen with C16 pariour beyond the hall. Later staircases in south-east corner of hall and in the gabled wing between the hall and kitchen. Original C16 fireplace in hall, other fireplaces refronted. First floor. C13/C14 hall and solar. Hall now divided by later partitions into 3 bedrooms. C16 moulded ceiling beams relate to the insertion of the C16 roof and ceiling aver of the open hall. Wing opening off from solar measures 5 feet 6 inches by 9 feet providing a small closet containing the original stone trough and drain an the north wall and 2 contemporary windows of rectangular form with splayed jambs. Projection leading off hall now contains principal stair and could have originally provided a small service room or store but the original function is not clear. Attic has C16 roof with straight principais rising from a tie beam and apex with a saddle mortised to the tops of the blades and a squared ridge resting on edge in a notch cut to receive it. Collar at intermediate level with inclined struts between tie and collar and curved windbraces between the purlins. Trusses span 14 feet 6 inches and the bay spacing averages 8 feet. A notable roof providing evidence of the transitional form between raised cruck roof construction of the medieval period and the standard forms of C17 roof construction (W-J). Window of c.1200 in north gable has mullions rebated to receive bars for shutters and was in poor state at time of re-survey. Old Manor Farm is noted as of particular intertest in representing the medieval manorial plan with the hall at first floor level, developing from precedents such as Boothby Pagnell, Lincs, and related to the stone defensive keeps or donjons of the Norman Castle. (Buildinqs of England: Oxfordshire: pp358-9; VCH: Oxfordshire: Vol VI, p104; Wood-Jones, R,B.; Traditional Domestic Architecture in the Banbury Region: 1963, plate 6C, figs 4 and 67 and pp24-5, 27, 52, 164, 233, 274; Wood, M.: The English Medieval House: 1983, pp77, 351, 369, 384; Oxford Architectural Society Report, 84: 1938, pp52-S; Hudson-Turner (Parker Ed): Domestic Architecture in England: 1877; Blomfield, J.C,: History of Cottisford in History of the Present Deanery of Bicester, Oxon: 1887, part 3, pp12-13 and plan; Photographs in N.M.R.)

Listing NGR: SP5892231082

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

243599

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Wood, E, The English Medieval House, (1965)
Salzman, L F, The Victoria History of the County of Oxford, (1959), 104
Pevsner, N, Sherwood, J, The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, (1974)
Blomfield, JC, History of the Present Deanery of Bicester Oxfordshire, (1887), 12-13
Wood-Jones, R B, Traditional Domestic Architecture in the Banbury Region, (1963)
Hudson Turner, T, Some Account of Domestic Architecture in England from the Conquest to the end of the 13th Century, (1851)
Proceedings of Oxford Architecture and History Society in Report 84, (1938)

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