Parsonage House and Attached Forecourt Walls, Gates and Gatepiers and Rear Wall With Outbuilding

Details

STANTON HARCOURT SP4105 21/306 Parsonage House and attached 12/09/55 forecourt walls, gates and gatepiers and rear wall with outbuilding (Formerly listed as Parsonage House and dovecote)

GV II*

House. Built c.1675 for Robert Huntingdon. Roughcast over limestone rubble, rendered limestone ashlar quoins; hipped stone slate roof; 2 stone ridge stacks with moulded drips and capping; large stone rear lateral stack. Double-depth plan with rear left wing. 2 storeys and attic; symmetrical 7-window range. Carolean style. Doorway has Tuscan pilasters and wood-bracketed pediment hood: bolection-moulded double-leaf doors with leaded overlight. Flat rendered arches over late C17 cross windows, with leaded-lights. Coved cornice; 2 hipped roof dormers with leaded casements. Similar 5-bay side walls, with stone steps leading to C20 door on right: similar cross windows and cellar door to rear service wing. Rear service wing of one storey and attic and similar materials: has similar cross windows, wood-mullioned windows with leaded-lights and chamfered heavy wood frame to door. Interior: central hall, with staircase to rear, has bolection-moulded panelling, fireplace and doors; and pictures of Roman Emperors and pastoral and townscape scenes including view of Whitehall probably by James de Witte. Fine dog-leg with landing staircase has twisted balusters. Parlour to right has bolection panelling grained to imitate walnut: bolection-moulded fireplace flanked by 2 tall narrow panels decorated with flowers, probably by James de Witte. Selection-panelled rooms on ground floor, mainly 1920's overmantel painting of the Siege of Paris, much restored in 1920s, in room to rear right. First-floor rooms each have moulded cornice, bolection-moulded fireplace, overmantel and doors; overmantel paintings of Europa and the Bull (over hall) and classical landscape with ruins and shepherds (to rear right), and oriental birds (to rear left), probably by James de Witte and restored in 1920's. Service area to rear left of ground floor: dog-leg service stairs with turned balusters; kitchen has large chamfered stone fireplace with late C17 spit-rack and hanging carved spice-rack, and part of late C17 cupboard range. Subsidiary features: limestone rubble forecourt walls, enclose area approximately 25 x 15 metres; gatepiers with ball finials flank decorative wrought-iron gates. Limestone rubble wall to rear right extends approximately 10 metres to small gazebo or shed, of limestone rubble with pyramidal stone slate roof. History: stands on medieval moated-site. Rear of house is probably C16 in part. Robert Huntingdon leased the house from All Souls college, Oxford: James de Witte, a Dutch painter and prisoner-of-war imprisoned at Abingdon, probably painted the overmantels and pictures in the hall which are of great interest. (Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, pp.783-784; Christopher Hussey, "The Parsonage at Stanton Harcourt, Country Life, 1940; National Monuments Record).

Listing NGR: SP4142305905

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

252390

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Sherwood, J, The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, (1974), 783-4
Country Life in Country Life, (1940)

End of official list entry

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