Description

LONG CRENDON

972/2/12 BICESTER ROAD
19-JUN-81 (Southwest side)
31
Warwick Farmhouse

II*

Former farmhouse. Hall house, probably C15, inserted stack later C16, floor later C16 or early C17, extended early C17, altered and encased C18 and C19. Timber framed, clad in limestone rubble, thatched roof. Three bays, with two-bay hall and probable solar bay to north-east, extended by one bay to south-west, early C17. One and a half and two storeys. Southern bay, part exposed box framing, set back from main building line. Opposing doorways to former passage, in late C18 openings, boarded door to north, part glazed door to south. Timber casements, mostly C20, of two and three lights, but in C18 and C19 chamfered openings. Two axial stacks, that to south C17, central stack being late C16 and C19; internal stack to roadside gable. Former solar bay, ground floor, early C20 tiled grate. Flanking alcove cupboards, C18 and later. Upper bay of hall, stop- chamfered bressumer, longitudinal beam with lamb's tongue chamfer stops. C19 basket grate and timber surround. Lower bay, stairs set transversely across passage. C17 bay to south, with stack inserted into third bay. Upper floor robust rough hewn cruck truss between first and second bays, with short king post, carrying trenched purlins; possible former window opening on south elevation. Second and third bay arched braced collar truss with clasped purlins. Third bay formerly half hipped with evidence of former louvre. Fourth bay exposed box framing with angle braces. Two- bay smoke blackened hall roof, with probably C15 smoke blackened thatch retaining remarkable survival of plant species, including dethorned blackberry stem ties; unblackened medieval basal thatch to remainder of original building.

One of the most important thatched roofs in England (John Letts), one of only c200 buildings in England with original base coat of medieval thatch.

U.K. Smoke Blackened Thatch Register, John Letts, Dept. Agricultural Botany, University of Reading.
Smoke Blackened Thatch, John Letts, English Heritage, 1999
Warwick Farm, V. A. G. 1995

Listing NGR: SP6918908844

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17535981

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

• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)