Brewhouse and Laundry at Bloxham Grove Farm

Details

BLOXHAM

531/2/56 BLOXHAM GROVE ROAD 14-NOV-85 Brewhouse and Laundry at Bloxham Grove Farm (Formerly listed as: BLOXHAM GROVE FARMHOUSE BREWHOUSE AND LAUNDRY APPROXIMATELY 10 METRES SOUTH WEST)

II Brewhouse and former laundry of C17-C19, with minor C20 alterations. MATERIALS: Coursed marlstone with a stone tile roof and brick chimney on right. PLAN: The brewhouse is nearly square with an attached rectangular former laundry. EXTERIOR: Bloxham Grove Farmhouse and its older outbuildings stand around a small, rectangular, courtyard, with the farmhouse forming the east range. Ten metres to the south-west of the farmhouse, at the east end of the south range of courtyard buildings, is a BREWHOUSE. It is a low, two-storey, gabled building. Its core may be C17 although the left gable wall has been rebuilt, probably (cf. style of window) when the farm buildings were improved in the 1820s. It has a broad door with a generous three-light casement to its right. Above are two small rectangular slots, supposedly for donkey engine drive shafts (an alternative suggestion is that these are for steam ventilation). Set in the small yard between the brewhouse and the farmhouse is a small circular arrangement of stone sets, said to be a donkey wheel circle. LAUNDRY (so-called; there is in fact no evidence for such a use), perhaps early C19, abuts the brewhouse to the right; the two are linked only at first-floor level. It is of coursed marlstone with a low, pitched, slate roof on bolted king post trusses. At its left, a door opens to a cross passage leading through the building and giving access to stairs to the upper floor of the brewhouse and the laundry. The principal access to the body of the building is via a broad door in the third bay; above this a similar door gives access to the first floor. Two small casements light the ground floor, and rows of small four- and two-light casements the first.

INTERIOR: BREWHOUSE: Hearth with wide bressumer and copper bases to either side. First-floor above with two-bay raised cruck roof with later collars. LAUNDRY: The interior (with, probably, a later C19 inserted floor supported on brick transverse walls) has largely been gutted and much of the floor removed.

HISTORY: The Victoria County History suggests that Bloxham Grove is 'very possibly' on the site of the lodge conveyed in 1528 with the warren by Edward Fiennes to James Merynge on a repairing lease. About 1797 the Old (204 acres) and New (147 acres) farms here were purchased and united by George Warriner (I), this purchase coinciding with inclosure of the parish's open fields in 1794 and 1802 which created the modern agricultural landscape. His son George Warriner (II) was an improving farmer, whose activities were noted by Arthur Young when he reported on agriculture in Oxfordshire in 1809 (published in 1813; Warriner's farming journals 1806-32 are in the Warwick County Record Office, CR 1635/122-6). Symptomatic of this was Warriner's purchase of threshing and winnowing machines mentioned in an inventory of 1813 (and the former in Young's 1813 publication, p. 86) along with five ploughs. In 1826 he turned his attention to the exisiting farm complex at Bloxham Grove, rebuilding and building anew several buildings including the coach house and barn, and perhaps the brewhouse. The Warriners were here until the late C19 and owned the farm until 1916. Thereafter there was little investment in the courtyard buildings at Bloxham Grove Farm, thereby incidentally ensuring their preservation.

The location of the brewhouse, close to the farmhouse, is typical of such buildings. Generally they had other functions alongside brewing, being also bakehouses, laundries, and a mess-room for the farm workers. The two-storey building which abuts the brewhouse to the west (not included in the listing) is today known as the laundry, and it may be that it gained this functional name, erroneously, by association.

SOURCES: V.C.H. Oxfordshire 9 (1969), 58; A. Young, General View of the Agriculture of Oxfordshire (1813); P.M. Slocombe, Farm Buildings of Wiltshire 1500-1900 (1989), 74-5.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: Standing close to the service end of Bloxham Grove Farmhouse is a brewhouse, probably C17 although much altered in the C19. Built in the local marlstone it is an important component of a farmstead which is notable for its early C19 improving buildings. The brewhouse is abutted by a two-storey, marlstone, agricultural building known as the laundry, although no evidence of such a function can be seen. This building is characterful externally and plays its part as an element of the farmstead, although its interior has been largely stripped out. It has group value with the Grade II barn.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

244159

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Salzman, L F, The Victoria History of the County of Oxford, (1969), 58
Brunskill, R W, Traditional Farm Buildings of Britain and their Conservation, (1999), 90-93

End of official list entry

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