Hardwick Manor House

Details

HARDWICK WITH TUSMORE HETHE ROAD SP5729 (South side) Hardwick 16/32 Hardwick Manor House 26/11/51

GV II*

Manor farmhouse. late C16 with later extension and addition. West gable restored in 1946. Late C20 alterations and repairs. Coursed limestone rubble. Half-hipped tiled roof. Substantial stone ridge stack has 3 diagonally set brick shafts. Rear has a stone brick lateral stack. Long rectangular plan. Probably originally 2-unit extended to 4-unit plan. 2 storeys plus attic and cellar. 6-window range extended to 8-window range. Front elevation. Entrance off-centre to right has a gabled porch, plank door and moulded wood frame. To right three 2-light stone mullioned windows. To left two 2-light stone mullioned windows. To left of straight joint two C20 2-light stone mullioned windows to left of straight joint and five 2-light stone mullioned windows and a single light window to main part. Hood moulds and label stops throughout. To right of entrance a 3-light stone mullioned cellar window. Rear elevation. Gabled 2-storey staircase projection off-centre to left has 2-light stone mullioned windows with hood moulds and label stops. Doorway leads to cellar below staircase. Single-storey dairy outshot on right has a raking roof and brick stack, Entrance into outshot on right. To left of door a 2-light and 3-light casement. Between the outshot and staircase projection a C20 window with wood lintel on the ground floor and a 2-light window with wood lintel above. To left of staircase projection a 2-light stone mullioned window on first floor has a hood mould and label stops. Interior. Plan from west to east, includes Parlour, space occuped by original staircase and with stone steps leading to cellar, Hall, Kitchen and Dairy to rear. Staircase projection now leads from upper end of hall in passageway leading to Parlour. Parlour has a late C16 stone fireplace with 4-centred arched head. Hall has wide stone fireplace with wood bressumer, a fragment of C17 oak screen and chamfered beam. Cellar has C16 moulded and stop-chamfered beam. Original late C16 staircase has a heavy moulded handrail without balusters and massive fleur-de-lys shaped newel posts. Original passageway ran from the west to east on north of house. Present passageway runs from west to east on south with partition walls dividing rooms. Small square opening to priest's hole in side of stack above head height on first floor. Probably formed about the same time as the ridge stack. Attic floor has former R.C. chapel with stoup at entrance. Barrel-vault plaster ceiling. Altar steps and winder stair. Priest's hole beyond chapel. Hardwick Manor house was built c.1580 to 1643 when Sir Richard Fermor was Lord of the Manor. The Fermors were a prominent R.C. family and services were held at Hardwick Manor House until the C19 when a new R.C. Chapel was built at Hethe. The manor house was leased in the C18 by the Fermors to the Day family until 1793 and to the Collingridge family until 1812. (Buildings of England: Oxfordshire: 1974, p633; VCH; 0xfordshire: Vol VI, p169)

Listing NGR: SP5765729602

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

243625

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Salzman, L F, The Victoria History of the County of Oxford, (1959), 169
Pevsner, N, Sherwood, J, The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, (1974), 633

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.