Description

STANTON HARCOURT HARCOURT HOUSE
SP4105
21/324 The Great Kitchen approx. 40m.
12/09/55 of Harcourt House
(Formerly listed as The Great
Kitchen, Harcourt House)

GV I

Kitchen. c.1485, with possible earlier origins. Coursed limestone rubble;
conical stone slate roof surmounted by lead griffin. Tower of square plan and
open to roof. Front of tower has hood mould over three C15 two-light
trefoil-headed windows. Gargoyles to cornice beneath crenellated parapet; stair
turret in left corner has slit lights and similar parapet. Offset buttresses to
left; rear wall has hood moulds over two C15 two-light trefoil-headed windows
and over a wide blocked 4-centred arched doorway. Now entered via C15 doorway in
rear wall of Manor Farmhouse (q.v.). Interior: left side wall has 3 ovens, one
with medieval door, an aumbry and a C15 plank door with decorative iron hinges
to stone newel stairs. Wall opposite has 2 screen walls flanking spaces for two
fires. The smoke escaped through 2 rows of six pointed louvred vents in each
bay, still situated under the eaves of the roof, which were regulated from a
passage behind the battlements. Squinches support an octagon which takes the
roof: head corbels in each corner support arch-braced squinch arches with
traceried spandrels and eight arched ribs meeting at the apex; 3 tiers of arch
bracing to purlins. One of the finest medieval kitchens in existence. Formerly
attached to the service end of the medieval manor house, demolished c.1750.
(Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, pp.782-3; National Monuments Record; M.
Wood, The English Medieval House, 1965, pp.251, 253. and plate 20A; Bodleian
Library, M.S. Top, Oxon, for late C18 and C19 drawings).

Listing NGR: SP4160605607

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17529255

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

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings