Description

SP 31 NW
4/8

ASCOTT-UNDER-WYCHWOOD
ASCOTT D'OYLEY
Manor House
27.8.56

GV
II*
Manor House. C13 origins, to one side are fragments of a C12 keep. Largely C16 and C17. Rubble stone with timber lintels and Cotswold stone roofs. Gabled; irregular plan with screens passage, basically an 'L' with porches north and south and two stair turret projections to north, one at angle with west wing, the other to east or centre bay. Roughly six bays across. Two storeys. Two sets of square chimneys with conjoined stacks. The north (entrance) front has Cotswold gables and irregular disposition. In two parts, strong vertical break to right of centre beside a wide dormer gable. Oak mullion window with ferramenta to right of entrance. The right-hand wing is domestic and projects with lean-tos to east, the gable end to north has irregular strings and pigeon-nesting holes, the west return has four windows with chamfered oak mullions. The south (garden) front has large gable to left. Three irregular dormer gables and a roughly central two-storey gabled porch. Two, three and four-light C20 casement windows; secondary door to left. The porch has front window to side entries and masks a good circa 1600 door with urnstops to doorcase and which retains drawbar and associated furniture. Clasping buttress to right, lower angle-storey scullery projection with hipped L-plan nib (? privy); nib to left of left-hand gable probably was a privy.

Interior: numerous features including two probably C17 newel stairs. The most important is the large early C13 window surround incorporated in east gable end which has clasping buttresses and chamfered footings. It seems that the medieval arrangement was altered in the early C16 when the east bay was floored and chimneys inserted into what probably became the parlour end, the wooden doorcase with urn stops and the chamfer stops to the beams on each floor appear to be later C16 however. Stairs off to north giving access to Solar; N.B. the Tudor arch fireplace in 'Solar' moved here from west end of house. It is possible that the whole house was re-roofed in the C16, the central portion perhaps still being used as an open hall, see smoke blackening to the trusses; remains of wind bracing are so scanty and the timbers of such small scanting however as to suggest a later date and retention of trusses after two fires. The present room off the cross passage has Jacobean panelling and puzzling joists; the buttery screen (rather skeletal at time of resurvey) has the usual three entries. The fireplaces at the west end have inglenooks and wide breadovens on ground floor and a wide flue; the doorway between the west bay and the wing projecting to north has a wooden segmental lintel which may be retained from an earlier arrangement. The projecting wing was still coated in raddle at time of resurvey and incorporated apple-stores and a former cheese room.

The house stands within the bailey of the castle of Ascott d'Oyley built circa 1129-50. Excavated 1946. See Antiquaries Journal, Vol XXXIX (July-Oct 1959 Nos 3 and 4) report by Jope and Threlfall.

Listing NGR: SP3021719020

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17531121

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)