Building record 1082300000 - CORDWAINERS, 2 BICESTER ROAD

Grade II. Medieval, C17 and C18. Left hand front part late C18, 2 storeys chequer brick, hipped slate roof with projecting eaves. Central door now bricked up, shallow bow windows each side, 6 panes wide, 4 deep, bowed brick aprons. Central sash window to first floor. Behind this section a timber-framed and brick bay with thatched roof. Right hand part C17, one storey and attic, colourwashed rendering over rubble stone or witchert. Thatch. Central door with lean-to tiled porch. Sash window each side, two 3-light casements under thatch. Tiled lean-to on right hand gable wall. Rubble stone garden wall. Interior: in left hand rear part one complete cruck truss, blades carried up to apex with yoke carrying ridge purlin. The right hand part large central stack with stair and entrance lobby in front (B1).
1 cruck truss with single curve blades held by a saddle or yoke carrying only a ridge-piece. Source: Roger Evans, Buckinghamshire CC; G.M. Beresford (B2).
Building survey and dendro-dating carried out in September 1989 suggest the building was probably constructed as a three-bay (or larger) hall house using timber with a felling date of 1447. The surviving 2 bays comprise an open hall, the central cruck truss remains, with a saddle apex (type 'C') in which the tops of the blades tenon into a saddle, supporting a square set ridge. In the 17th century a 2-bay stone and thatched wing was added at right angles to the medieval hall, with a lobby-entry and central chimney stack. The new wing provided a hall in bay 3 and parlour or ground floor chamber in bay 4, both with unheated chambers over; the medieval hall possibly becoming a service wing. In the late 18th or early 19th century the medieval hall was altered, with the rebuilding of walls in stone, insertion of a chimney stack and upper floor, and demolition of the possible third bay. In the mid 19th century the front wall of bay 1 was demolished a replaced by a two-storey brick block. The principal timbers are mainly elm and not suitable for dating. The roof ridge was datable and evidence of shrinkage suggests that it was used within a year of felling. See report for detail (B3).