History

Apparently a late C17 or early C18 vernacular farmhouse, enlarged and radically remodelled in the mid to later C18 as the residence of a gentleman of modest means: perhaps Kingsmill Evans, a bencher of Gray's Inn who had inherited it from his father c.1730; or his eldest son, also Kingsmill, a colonel of the First Foot Guards.

Exterior

A long and elegant white-painted 2½-storey 6-window facade with a simple round-headed doorway offset slightly right of centre, hornless 12-pane sashed windows symmetrically disposed on both floors, and a set of 4 small eyebrow dormers (offset right) at the front of a hipped roof swept over prominent bracketed eaves. But this deceives the eye, because the core of the building is an earlier L-plan farmhouse composed of a 2-unit main range: the centre and right-hand end of the present house (as defined by a ridge chimney offset left of centre), with a short 1-unit rear wing to its left half. This rear wing is now enclosed by additions to its W end and N side, while on its S side the basement level of the C18 wing survives in the form of a raised terrace in the SW angle. The land sloping down from front to rear, there are several openings at basement level to a full suite of cellar rooms to the whole house; otherwise, the main features of interest at the back are a canted bay to the ground floor, with multi-paned sashed glazing, and a tripartite sashed window above that. The N side of the house has a large round-headed stair-window in the centre, sashed, with radiating glazing bars, and a full-height canted bay near the rear corner, which has on each floor a round-headed sashed window with radiating glazing bars, a painted keystone, and thin imposts run out round each side, where they cross the heads of small 8-pane sashes.

Interior

The front door opens into a hall-shaped room which has a low ceiling with relatively small boxed-in beams, and a fireplace in the left (S) end wall, where the present owners found a series of earlier fireplaces. In the present kitchen behind this wall there is a full-height cupboard in the angle with the front wall, which has an arched or vaulted stone roof and may represent the site of a former entrance doorway to the hall. The rear wall of the hall is very thick. Behind it is a circulation passage, at the N end of which is a dog-legged staircase with open string and very fine "chinoiserie" balustrading. The roof is of 4 structural bays on the main (N-S) axis, with exposed collar trusses and purlins, and a similar construction over the original rear wing.

Reasons for Listing

Included as an interesting example of the transformation of a relatively small late C17 or early C18 vernacular farmhouse, of which some fabric survives, into an elegant Georgian design.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29502693

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

• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014