Estate buildings formerly associated with Oakhurst Hall

Summary

Estate buildings formerly associated with Oakhurst Hall, with boundary walls and gate piers to the fold and stable yard. Built in 1853 and designed by diocesan architect of Hereford, Thomas Nicholson.

Reasons for Designation

The estate buildings formerly associated with Oakhurst Hall, designed by architect Thomas Nicholson, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an important component of an architecturally accomplished example of a small country estate designed in a sophisticated interpretation of the Jacobean Revival style;
* for the use of good quality materials and attention to architectural detailing;
* for the good degree of overall survival of historic fabric and the continued legibility of its original plan and function;
* for the almost complete survival of a mid-C19 stable interior.

Historic interest:

* built in 1853 it forms part of a relatively early example of a small country house estate built for a member of the aspiring middle class and contributes to our understanding of mid-C19 domestic architecture and estate planning.

Group value:

* with Oakhurst Hall, also designed by Thomas Nicholson, which together form a distinctive example of estate architecture.

History

The estate buildings, as with the principal house, Oakhurst, were designed by the diocesan architect for Hereford, Thomas Nicholson, in 1853 for Rowland Jones Venables, a Director of the Great Western and Oswestry and Newtown Railway Companies. Located approximately 100m to the south-west of the house, the original plans show a roughly E-shaped arrangement of buildings around a fold yard to the south and a stable yard to the north. To the south side of the fold yard, there was a cartshed (demolished by the late C19) and pigsty (demolished late C20). The principal west range comprised, from south to north, a cowhouse, threshing barn and granary, a covered driveway to the road, a fowl house, a stable with a loose box and three stalls, a coach house, and workshop. The north range housed a further stable with two stalls flanked by loose boxes and a harness room. Above the harness room was a bedroom that served the cottage to the east end of this range. The cottage was designed with a central staircase plan with a parlour and scullery to either side and a single-storey range to the rear that abutted the north wall of the harness room, providing a coal house, larder and privy. This range was extended to form two storeys in the C20.

Details

Estate buildings formerly associated with Oakhurst Hall, with boundary walls and gate piers to the fold and stable yard. Built in 1853 and designed by diocesan architect of Hereford, Thomas Nicholson.

MATERIALS: built of brick in English garden wall bond and faced in snecked stone with ashlar dressings. The pitched roofs are covered in slates.

PLAN: The estate buildings are orientated on a north-west to south-east alignment, but for the purposes of this description it is presumed that the building is on a north-to-south alignment.

The two-storey estate building survives on an L-shaped plan with the farmyard elevation facing east. The west range comprises the former cowhouse and threshing barn with granary, that open onto the fold yard. Separated by a dividing wall between the two yards, the west range continues as the covered driveway bay (which gives access to the public road) former fowl house, stable which is divided into three stalls with a loose box to the south end, and the coach house and workshop, opened up to form a single space. To the north side of the stable yard is a further stable and harness room. Attached to the east end of this range is the cottage with a central staircase plan, with the first floor extending over the harness room to the rear; its rear range has been raised to form two storeys.

EXTERIOR: shaped gables to the south and north end both with round pitching eyes; that to the north is flanked by cruciform arrow slits with lobed ends. The west elevation has a roughly central round-arched driveway with pronounced quoins, a keystone and multi-faceted imposts; the pair of timber gates are retained. To either side are narrow shaped gables above pitching eyes, flanked by three cruciform arrow slits with lobed ends, this feature is repeated to the inner north and south wall of the driveway. The east elevation and the south elevation of the north range are punctuated by ground floor door and window openings, including a pair of hinged threshing doors, and a pair of sliding coach house doors, all beneath segmental stone heads, whilst to the first floor are narrow ventilation slits. Between the stable range and cottage is a large ridge stack.

The cottage has shaped gables with round windows to the principal (east), north and south elevation, with tall, casement windows to the ground floor. There is a timber porch to the front; a porch has been added to the side (north) door in the C20.

INTERIOR: the cowhouse retains its stone sett floor and drainage channel. The stable to the west side of the stable yard is complete with cobbled floor, drainage channel, stall partitions (one retaining an iron section of railing above), brick mangers with a timber lip, iron tethering rings and wooden hooks for harnesses. There are also decorative iron vents to the partitions and ceiling. The stable to the north side of the yard retains its floor and some of its stable fixtures and fittings, including the original timber ceiling with scissor bracing and feeding channels from the loft.

The interior of the cottage has been modernised.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: snecked stone boundary wall to the fold and stable yard, with two pairs of gate piers with domed caps.

Sources

Other
Nicholson, T, 'Oakhurst (Mount Sion) for Rowland J. Venables. Farm and stable buildings and cottage - ground and first floor plans', (1853), Shropshire Archives (SCC1/G/765).
'Oakhurst Hall, Oakhurst Road, Oswestry', (Shropshire Council Historic Environment Record: 33860)

End of official list entry

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