The Vicarage

Reasons for Designation

There are many speculatively constructed houses of the later C19 and early C20 in North Oxford, and great care needs to be exercised in selecting from among them those which through their design, or historic significance, meet the criteria to be added to the list. Number 68 Woodstock Road is a Tudor-style building of solid substance and character, built as a vicarage for the listed Church of St Philip and St. James, to designs by HWG Drinkwater in 1887. Its period character is conveyed by its composition with cross wing, hall and oriel, with lean-to porch between gables. It also has good individual details. Of special interest as a consistent all-round composition based in respectable tradition, adding considerably to the setting of the Grade A listed church. It stands within the North Oxford Conservation Area. Designated at grade II.

Details

612/0/10122 WOODSTOCK ROAD 07-OCT-08 68 THE VICARAGE

II BUILDING: Former vicarage, now academic institution.

DATE: 1887

ARCHITECT: H.W.G. Drinkwater.

MATERIALS: Ground floor walls of coursed rubble limestone with ashlar dressings; roughcast upper storey with ornamental half-timbering; gables with moulded bargeboards, small pendants and patterned tile-hanging to apex; plain tile roofs; red brick chimneys with square nibs.

PLAN: Roughly square

FAÇADE: In Tudor style, suggesting hall, cross wing and oriel. A large building, of 2 storeys and attics. Front has two asymmetrical projecting gables, full-height to left, slightly smaller to right, with lean-to porch between. Further narrow blind bay to right. Ovolo-moulded mullion windows with single transoms, in stone below and wood above, with leaded glazing, elaborated in top lights. Porch has arched top lights and double panelled doors in stone basket arch with carved foliage spandrels. Left side, facing Church Walk, has central projection with tile-hung gable overhanging bowed oriel window. Left bay part tile-hung with scalloped tiles, dormer windows and (re-sited) ground-floor hopper dated 1887.

Built as vicarage for church of St. Philip and St. James, now Middle East Centre for St. Anthony's College. Has group value with listed church.

INTERIORS: Not seen but illustrated as having re-used panelling in Tudor style (Symonds, 1999).

HISTORY: Running almost parallel to the Banbury Road, the Woodstock Road serves as a second arterial route through the North Oxford Conservation Area and provides a major public access. The varied types of building reflect the spread of the suburb northwards and the meter the changing tastes in architecture from the Regency period onwards. Wilkinson and Moore were responsible for a good number of the houses of the later C19 on the Woodstock Road. Number 68 was built as vicarage for the church of St. Philip and St. James which it adjoins. Now the Middle East Centre for St. Anthony's College.

SOURCES: T. Hinchcliffe, North Oxford (1992); Anne Spokes Symonds, Changing Faces of North Oxford, Book 2 (1999).

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: There are many speculatively constructed houses of the later C19 and early C20 in North Oxford, and great care needs to be exercised in selecting from among them those which through their design, or historic significance, meet the criteria to be added to the list. Number 68 Woodstock Road is a large Tudor-style building of solid substance and character, built as a vicarage for the listed Church of St Philip and St. James, to designs by H.W.G Drinkwater in 1887. Its period character is conveyed by its composition with cross wing, hall and oriel, with lean-to porch between gables. It also has good individual details. Of special interest as a consistent all-round composition based in respectable tradition, adding considerably to the setting of the Grade A listed church. It stands within the North Oxford Conservation Area. Recommended for listing at grade II.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

493663

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Spokes Symonds, A, The Changing Faces of North Oxford, Book 2, (1999)
Fletcher, J M, Spokes, P S, The Origin and Development of Crown Post Roofs, ()
Hinchcliffe, T, North Oxford, ()

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