26 High Street, The Manor House - Wheatley Manor book

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The late medieval/Tudor house consisted of two parts: an open hall with a cross passage, service rooms and a first floor chamber; and a  separate detached kitchen. The hall was situated to the left of the front door, the service rooms were to the right with the chamber above. You can see the original end of the house in the stonework. The detached kitchen was the present west wing. At an unknown date the hall and the kitchen were joined together. The open hall was also ceiled in and two dormer windows were inserted in the roof. The right-hand dormer was added in 1939.
In 1601 Abraham Archdale added the east wing with its fine battlemented oriel window (see the date 1601 and TA AA with vine-leaf and green man decoration. An empty niche was left for the insertion of a coat of arms. The eastern wall of the east wing, rebuilt in 1939, originally had four large windows instead of the present six. The east wing contains the well of a large staircase and wraps round the southern side of the original hall.
The studded door in the basement at the SW corner of the east wing is the original south door of the hall.
The low range of buildings to the east of the garden were built in 1835 and consisted of a cow shed and a larger cart shed. The northern  outbuilding was originally a cottage known as Duffield's.
The pump outside the back door of the west wing, dates from the nineteenth century division of the house into cottages, as do the two small sheds on the terrace garden, which were originally earth closets.

Listed details state 'Manor house. Probably C16; wing dated 1601. Limestone rubble with ashlar dressings; old plain-tile roof and brick stacks. H-plan. One storey plus attics and 2 storeys plus attics. Front of main range has central studded door with double-ovolo moulded frame. To left, two 4-light wooden mullioned and transomed windows, and to right, a 4-light wood mullioned window and a 3-light casement, all with C18 segmental arches above. 3 hipped half dormers with C20 frames. Right bay is a later additions. Right cross wing has stone mullioned windows of
5,4 and 3 lights in the gable wall, all with ovolo moulding, labels and old leaded lights. Gable wall of left cross wing has a 2-storey canted bay, with stone mullioned and transomed windows and a crenellated parapet, and in the rendered gable, which retains a moulded bargeboard, contains a 3-light casement. Flanking plaster panels with ornamental borders are inscribed "ANNO/1601" and "T:A:A:A". Left return wall is altered but has 3 re-set stone mullioned and transomed windows at first floor. Rear gable retains a 3-light stone mullioned and transomed window at frist floor. Further studded door with moulded frame re-set at rear, and a cased lead pump is attached to the rear wall. Interior: Elaborate intersecting double-ovolo moulded beams in 1601 range, and in ground floor of main range (probably inserted) to left of former screens passage.
Timber-framed gable and parts of roof structure of former hall survive together with remains of solar. Several 4-centre arched stone fireplaces: some reset. Right wing has heavy chamfered spine beams with some chamfered and stopped joists, and a large open fireplace with brick lining. It may have been a detached kitchen, later linked to hall range by added bay'.
(V.C.H.: Oxfordshire, Vol.V, p.109 Buildings of England: Oxfordshire; p.838).

Much more information is available in The Wheatley Society's 'The High Street Wheatley' and 'Wheatley Manor' a comprehensive history of which a copy is available in the Library

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