Granary at Bishop's Court Farm

Summary

Granary to Bishop’s Court Farm, dating from the mid-C19.

Reasons for Designation

The mid-C19 Granary at Bishop’s Court Farm is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a good example of a timber-framed granary raised on staddle stones, which survives, largely, in its original form and illustrates a regional type;
* it is a high-quality construction, with a substantial frame with decorative mouldings;
* it retains features internally relating to the use of the building, such as the first-floor partitioning and internal door.

Group value:

* the granary has a historic functional relationship with the listed Bishop's Court Farmhouse, and provides evidence of its mid-C19 prosperity.

History

Bishops' Court Farm is so-named for its occupation of a site reputed to have been destroyed in the Reformation. The farmhouse is listed at Grade II; it is an early-C19 remodelling of a timber-framed building believed to have originated in the C16. Late-C19 maps show a number of agricultural buildings in a loose courtyard plan to the north of the farmhouse; further buildings are shown in early-C20 maps, and by the 1972 Ordnance Survey map, the courtyard is completed infilled. The structures present in the courtyard area on the late-C19 maps appear to have been entirely modernised.

The granary stands approximately 70m to the north-west of the farmhouse, beyond the group of barns. It is not shown on the Tithe map of 1847, but is present by the first edition of the Ordnance Survey, dating from 1877. The building is largely unchanged.

Details

Granary to Bishop’s Court Farm, dating from the mid-C19.

MATERIALS: the building is timber framed and mounted on limestone staddle stones, with timber weatherboarding and a slate roof. A brick supporting plinth has been added between the third and fourth staddles on the north side, and fourth and fifth on the south.

PLAN: the building stands to the north-west of the expansive complex of sheds and barns, once a loose courtyard plan. It is rectangular on plan and is orientated roughly east/west.

EXTERIOR: the granary stands on three rows of five staddle stones. It is clad in horizontal weatherboarding and has a pitched roof. There are occasional, irregular openings in the cladding, which are now covered with modern sheeting. The entrance is on the south elevation; the doorway has a segmental-arched head, and a ledge and plank door.

INTERIOR: internally, the building has two floors; the lower floor is a single open space, and the upper floor, accessible through an open hatch, has a timber stud wall dividing it into two rooms. The timber frame is exposed internally, and is of three principal bays. On the lower floor, posts with moulded heads support deep ceiling beams with chamfered edges and lamb’s tongue stops. The walls have substantial studs and braces. On the upper floor the upright posts of the central bays carry the wall plate, and cruck blades rise from the floor plate to meet the collar beam, with a tie to the wall plate part-way up. At either gable end, there is simply a collar and tie. There is a single, wide purlin carrying the rafters, which meet at a narrow ridge piece. The boarded partition on the upper floor has a ledge and plank door with slender strap hinges.

Sources

Websites
Lobel, M (ed), 'Parishes: Dorchester', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 7, Dorchester and Thame Hundreds, pp 39-64, accessed 15/07/2017 from http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol7/pp39-64
Oxfordshire Historic Environment Record, No 1912: Site of Medieval Bishop's Palace and Tithe Barn at Dorchester, accessed 15/08/2017 from http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MOX7236&resourceID=1033

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