Description

GREAT HASELEY LITTLE HASELEY SP60SW 5/27 Haseley Court 18/07/63

GV 1

Country house. C14/C15 and 1710, extended 1754. Squared coursed limestone and ashlar dressings; old plain-tile roof. Double-depth plan with rear wing. 3 storeys. The ll-bay front is divided 2:2:3:2:2. Centre and ends break forward slightly with rusticated quoins, and the heavy cornice rises through the plain parapet with C20 ball finials to form a triangular pediment over the central section. Central 6-panel double-leaf door has a moulded stone doorcase with segmental pediment on consoles, and the sashes (12-pane at ground and first floors and 6-pane at second) have stone flat arches with projecting keyblocks. All sashes have heavy glazing bars, and in the 1754 extensions to the 7-bay front of 1710, some are blind. 3-bay front to right is of 2 storeys with tall full-length sashes at ground floor and casements above, and is noted as having a datestone inscribed 1754. Rear is irregular and very plain except for a Venetian window with stone pilasters, interrupted cornice and central double-stepped keyblock. The 2-storey rear wing to left is C14/C15 in origin and was further Gothicised, probably in late C18. Its 3-window front to right is divided by heavy stepped buttresses and has a crenellated parapet. The 2- and 3-light stone mullioned windows are probably C15, most being cinqefoiled with round or pointed heads with recessed spandrels, but some are uncusped and one has ogee lights and may be C14. To extreme left are cusped single lights and a door in a pointed chamfered arch. C18 paired blind quatrefoils below the parapet and a crude triangular pediment over the central first floor window. In the gable wall is an arched first-floor window of 2 ogee lights under a quatrefoil which looks early C14 but may be an insertion. Courtyard front to left has a C16/C17 projecting wing with stepped gable flanked by single-storey infill with 4-centred Gothick windows, and a massive clustered brick stack at its junction with the rear wing. To right, the 2-storey end of the main range has an asymmetrically-placed Gothick bow window with traceried lights under a large round-headed window. Interior: Central stone-paved hall has plaster panelling and round-arched openings with egg and dart surrounds; the large stone fireplace of about 1710 has a central mask between festoons, a heavy cornice supported on draped consoles and a scroll-flanked overmantel with broken pediment and finials. It has been attributed to William Townesend of Oxford. Dining Room to left has fielded panelling, fluted pilasters and eared architraves. Small room to rear of hall is in sumptuous Palladian taste with Venetian window with Ionic columns, elaborate eared doorcases with triangular pediments and a marble fireplace with carved wooden surround and side scrolls. Double-height drawing room in 1754 extension to right has deeply-coved ceiling with delicate Adam style plasterwork and an inlaid marble fireplace. Corresponding to left, the library has eared architraves curving to a central point and the Gothick bow window has fragments of C17 painted and stained glass in the tracery lights. Bedrooms have C18 cornices and one has C18 wallpaper. Open-well stair behind hall rises to second floor and has early CIB heavy turned balusters with 4-baluster newels. Openings from landings are round arches below oeils de boeuf with heavy egg and dart moulding. Rear wing has segmental rear arches to windows with concave chamfers, and a long first-floor room with C20 painted trompe l'oeil ceiling by John Fowler. The house was rescued from post-war dereliction by Mrs. Nancy Lancaster. (Country Life, Vol.CXXVII, pp.268 and 328; Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, pp.685-7).

Listing NGR: SP6449300596

External Links

• Wikidata Q17528924

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Recommended Books

• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)