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© Mr David Sheppard
IoE Number:
401739
Location:
HANWELL CASTLE, MAIN STREET (south side)
HANWELL, CHERWELL, OXFORDSHIRE
Photographer:
Mr David Sheppard
Date Photographed:
04 June 2005
Date listed:
08 December 1955
Date of last amendment:
08 December 1955
Grade
II*
NOTE - The Images of England website consists of images of listed buildings based on the statutory list as it was in 2001 and does not incoporate subsequent amendments to the list. For an updated version of the statutory list you should visit our LBOnline database http://lbonline.english-heritage.org.uk/Login.aspx
HANWELL MAIN STREET
SP4343 (South side)
24/84 Hanwell Castle
GV II*
Country house, now 3 dwellings. Former great house of which only the south-west
tower and south range remains of a 2-storey house built round a courtyard with
main entrance on west. Begun c.1498 for William Cope, cofferer to Henry VII.
Mostly demolished in C18. East wing and restorations c.1903. Left part. Complex
range incorporating C15, C19 and C20 builds. Squared coursed ironstone. Steeply
pitched stone slate roof laid to diminishing courses. Stone and brick ridge
stacks. Double depth plan. 2 storeyss. 2-window range. Entrance porch has plank
door and 4-centred wood head. Front has C20 windows with wood lintels. Rear has
Tudor windows some renewed. Central part: long rectangular south range. Diaper
patterned blue and red brick. Limestone dressings. Steeply pitched stone slate
roof laid to diminishing courses. Brick ridge and end stacks. 2 storeys.
5-window range. Gabled porch has entrance with 4-centred doorway. Ground floor
has C20 windows with wood lintels. First floor has 2- 3- and 4-light C15/C16
windows, some with King mullions and an oriel window. Tower on right. Red brick
with diaper patterns in blue brick and ironstone quoins. 3 storeys. 2 corner
turrets. Crenellated parapets. South side has 4-light C15/C16 windows that are
on ground floor transomed. Interior not inspected but south range is noted as
having 2 large kitchen fireplaces placed back to back; plain moulded stone
doorways; late marble fireplaces. Tower noted as having contemporary stone
fireplaces on upper floors and newel stair in north-west turret. James I visited
in 1605, 1612, and 1624 Leland records the castle as a very pleasant and gallant
house in c.1540. The earliest example of C15 brickwork in north Oxfordshire. The
C20 addition on east is not of special architectural interest. Photography and
plans in NMR. Interior not inspected.
(Buildings of England; Oxfordshire; 1974, p632; VCH; Oxfordshire; Vol IX, p114;
Wood-Jones, R.B., Traditional Domestic Architecture in the Banbury Region, 1963,
p164; Beesley, A., History of Banbury, 1841, pp191-2, 240)