Description

ST 01 SW
8/180
5.4.66

UPLOWMAN
Widhayes Farmhouse including garden wall adjoining to east

GV
II

Farmhouse. Late C16 - early C17, thoroughly refurbished circa 1880, some circa 1980
modernisation. The front block is red sandstone rubble with some ashlar dressings,
the rest is plastered stone rubble, maybe with cob; stone rubble stacks with
plastered brick chimney shafts; slate roof, probably thatch before circa 1980.
Plan and development: basically an L-plan house. The main block faces south-south-
east, say south. It is double depth. The front contains 3 rooms. The main rooms
are the centre one with a rear lateral stack and left (west) room with a gable-end
stack. Between these 2 rooms a cross-passage connects the front door to a large
stair behind the centre room. At the right (east) end is a double depth dairy.
Behind the left front room the rear block projects at right angles back to the road.
This includes another passage to the stair well and a corridor runs along the back
(east side) of this block past an unheated small office, dining room with axial
stack backing onto the kitchen which has a gable-end stack. The service courtyard
in the angle of the 2 main wings is also enclosed on the north side by a low service
block containing woodsheds and the like. The house is essentially the result of the
extensive circa 1880 renovation although a few fragments of late C16 - early C17
work shows in the front block. More may be hidden throughout the house. It is 2
storeys throughout.
Exterior: the symmetry of the 2-window front is upset by a small third floor window
near the right end. The windows are all circa 1980 aluminium-framed windows without
glazing bars. The ground floor ones have low segmental arches over and the main
first floor ones are half dormers. Central flat doorway contains C19 6-panel door
behind a C20 gabled porch. There is a projecting string course across most of the
front at first floor sill level. The roof is gable-ended with shaped kneelers and
coping. The west side of the rear block has a regular 3-window front, mostly C20
aluminium or iron-framed casements without glazing bars but including 2 C19 timber
casements containing rectangular panes of leaded glass.
Interior: is wholly the result of the circa 1880 renovation and all the joinery and
other detail dates from then. However, in the west room of the front block, an
earlier stone rubble fireplace with replacement oak lintel has been exposed. The
roof over this section is late C16 - early C17;a common rafter roof arch-braced A-
frames. This was possibly built to provide a coved plaster ceiling. Roof of the
rear block is not accessible. More early features probably survive behind C19
plaster, but so thorough was the circa 1880 refurbishment, that the houses must be
regarded as largely Victorian.
There is a large garden to east of the house and it is separated from the road by a
tall plastered cob and stone rubble wall with corrugated iron coping extending from
the service block eastwards.
The farmhouse forms part of an important group with the gatehouse and stables (q.v),
a barn (q.v) and linhay (q.v). The farmer possesses a good set of documents
relating to the farm dating back to the Cl7.

Listing NGR: ST0038714515

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26461652

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

• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)