Traphouse at Bloxham Grove Farm

Details

BLOXHAM

531/0/10007 BLOXHAM GROVE ROAD 26-FEB-07 Traphouse at Bloxham Grove Farm

GV II Two-bay Traphouse with granary over of 1826

MATERIALS: Coursed marlstone, with corrugated asbestos roof covering.

PLAN: Bloxham Grove Farmhouse and its older outbuildings stand around a small, rectangular, courtyard, with the Farmhouse forming the east range. The traphouse stands immediately outside the main west entrance into the courtyard, on its south side.

EXTERIOR: The traphouse has a tall, elliptically-arched entrance on its south side, opening to a small yard. Above the entrance is a carved datestone of 1826. The double doors are missing. A tall, narrow, door giving access into the left side of the trap house has been half blocked to form a window. The floor of the trap house is of brick, while leading north from it is an approach (only partially exposed) of set-like cobbles. The granary itself is approached by stairs on the north side of the building. It is lit by small, two-light, casements in both gables.

INTERIOR: The traphouse has wooden pegs for harnesses on both the left- and right-hand walls, while in the centre of the rear wall is a hearth (grate missing) served by a wall flue. A heavy central cross beam supports the first floor. Inside the granary most or all of the bins have been removed (full access felt inadvisable on safety grounds). It has a bolted king-post variant roof.

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 traphouse. 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.

SOURCES: V.C.H. Oxfordshire 9 (1969), 58; R. Brunskill, Traditional Farm Buildings of Britain and their Conservation (1999), 90-3; A. Young, General View of the Agriculture of Oxfordshire (1813).

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: The traphouse with granary above was among the farmyard buildings at Bloxham Grove built or upgraded in or about 1826 by George Warriner (II), an improving farmer whose activities were noted by Arthur Young, the celebrated writer on agriculture. Although not a rare type of building this is a good example, little altered, and with a striking tall profile that vaguley resembles a gatehouse in its form, a datestone, and local stonework.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

502971

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
The Victoria History of the County of Oxfordshire, (1969)
Young, A, General View of the Agriculture of Oxfordshire, (1813)
Brunskill, R W, Traditional Farm Buildings of Britain and their Conservation, (1999), 90-93

End of official list entry

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