Description

SS 9422-9522 BAMPTON LUKE STREET, Bampton

14/45 Leburn House and Lower Leburn,
including stable block and rear
5.4.66 garden walls (Previously listed
as Leaburn)
GV II*

2 adjoining houses, formerly 1 house. Documents are said to record date of building
as 1766 for Richard Bowden, mercer, although many features appear to be earlier.
Dressed local stone ; Leburn House (to the right) with an asbestos slate roof, gabled
at ends with sprocketted eaves to the rear and end stacks with stone shafts. Lower
Leburn, to the left, has a bitumen-painted slate roof to the main range, gabled at
ends, with rusticated quoins and a right end brick stack. The rear wing of Lower
Leburn has an asbestos slate roof and 2 projecting lateral stacks.
Plan: Main range single depth, 3 rooms wide, the 2 right hand rooms (Leaburn House)
the principal rooms, Lower Leburn being the service block at the left end with a rear
wing heated by the lateral stacks. The rear wing separates the garden to the rear of
Leburn from a service courtyard to the south-east of Lower Leburn which has a former
stable block to the rear of the courtyard, attached to the wing.
Exterior: Leburn House 3 storeys over cellars ; Lower Leburn 2 storey. Leburn has an
exceptionally attractive 4-bay front elevation, the second and third storeys divided
by pilasters with a very deep coved cornice carried out round the pilasters. Slate
steps up to recessed front door in first bay from the left with fielded panels and a
panelled soffit and reveals to the doorcase ; fluted half-columns supported an
entablature. Original window embrasures with segmental arches to the first and
second floors with voussoirs and keystones, variety of glazing. The 2 second floor
right hand windows are C18 12-pane sashes with moulded architraves and thick glazing
bars, the 2 left hand windows are probably early C18 2-light casements, 8 panes per
light with narrow margin panes. The first floor windows are glazed with circa early
C19 12-pane sashes ; the 2 left hand ground floor windows are sashes with glazing
bars to the top lights only ; ground floor window right C20 top-hung 12-pane
casement. Evidence of former first floor balcony. The rear elevation, overlooking
the churchyard, has left and right rusticated pilasters, a deep coved cornice and a
shallow 2-storey lean-to, probably a C20 addition. The 4 second floor windows are 2-
light casements, 8 panes per light with narrow margin panes (right hand window false)
; first floor C20 casement, 1 2-light casement, 8 panes per light. Good ramped C18
slate-capped garden walls on the churchyard boundary laced with courses of smaller
blocks, rectangular gate piers.
Lower Leburn has a 3-bay front elevation with rusticated quoins ; recessed panelled
front door in left hand bay with a rectangular fanlight with glazing bars and a
cornice carried on brackets ; 12 pane sash windows. The lateral stacks to the rear
wing suggest a C17 or possibly earlier date for this block.
Interior: of Leburn House : Fine interior details, many of which look earlier than
1766. Splendid compact dog-leg stair tucked into rear left corner and extending to
the attic storey with an open string, steeply-ramped handrail and alternating fluted,
columnar and barley-sugar balusters. The landings have late C17 or C18 plaster egg
and dart and dentil cornices. The principal first floor living room has a fine circa
mid C18 decorated plaster ceiling with a central rose and moulded ribs in an oval
pattern, smaller first and second floor rooms have deep moulded cornices. The second
floor landing has possibly earlier C18 ornamental plaster work including rustic
flowers, the design truncated by the partition wall of the right hand room. Numerous
fine C18 panelled doors with fielded panels; surviving chimneypieces are mostly early
C19. The cellar has a winding stone stair which formerly led to the service rooms
(Lower Leburn) and a large open fireplace with a chamfered lintel. X apex pegged
roof-trusses of large scantling, subsidiary roof timbers C20 replacements.
Interior: of Lower Leburn not inspected but may contain features of interest, the
south wing may have early roof timbers.
An impressive C18 town house in a prominent position in Luke Street with exceptional
exterior and interior features.

Listing NGR: SS9566422275

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17548124

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

• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)