Untitled - Council for British Archaeology

82C2Oth additions to the street-plan. Other modern development has been mostlyin the nature of infilling along pre-existing street alignments.BUILDINGSThe oldest surviving building is the parish church of St. John Baptist(PRN 5996), in the centre of the village. It is of local, probably Headingtonor Wheatley, stone, and consists of nave, chancel, N and S aisles andW tower. The floor area of the nave is 63.5 sq.m., the N aisle 52 sq.m. andthe S aisle 28 sq.m. Documentary evidence suggests that the church was inexistence at least as early as c.1090, and there is every reason to supposethat a Saxon church stood on the site. The oldest surviving part of thestructure, the N arcade, indicates that the church already had at least oneaisle by c.1200. The chancel, rebuilt c.1300, is the most noteworthy partof the church, being regarded as one of the finest examples in Oxfordshireof the Early English - Decorated Transitional style. The N aisle was rebuiltand the S aisle added or rebuilt later in the C14th. There is atradition that the N aisle was rebuilt by the inhabitants of Woodperry fortheir own use after Woodperry church was destroyed by fire. The W tower,the latest major part of the structure, was added in the C15th.The churchyard is a little over acre (0.2 ha.) in extent, of rectilinearshape with a re-entrant angle on the SW, which indicates an extensionin the past. Many gravestones remain in situ, mostly C18th and later.It remains unenclosed on the NE side towards the street verge.Te central village nucleus around the church contains the finest individualgroup of buildings, all of local stone rubble or ashlar. Northof the church is a thatched stone barn with large buttresses, which appearsto be medieval (PRN-8060). Behind this is Manor Farmhouse (PRN 8058), whichdespite its mainly C16th-C17th appearance, contains a Medieval core. Themain E-W range comprises a four-bay first-floor hall with an exteriorstack at the W end of the N wall and a blocked C14th window in the W gable.This is joined at the W end by a S wing which includes a first-floor solarof three bays with arch-braced collar-beam roof. Part of the solar wingwas rebuilt and extended westwards, and an attic inserted in the late C16thor C17th, and documentary evidence records extensive repairs by John Whitein 1660. Further alterations took place in the early C18th, commemoratedby a date-stone '1742', while new doors and windows were put in a furthermodernisation around 1800. Another rubble-and-tiled barn W of Manor Farmhouse(PRN 8059), originally of 10bays, has been partly demolished. Thebuildings of Rectory Farm (PRN 8061), to the NW of the church, are less important,but still of some value. Immediately E of the church, John White'sbirthplace (PRN 10,656) is a fine C16th house of squared rubble with anold tiled roof and stone-mullioned windows, a building of great interest.Outside this central nucleus there are several further pre-C19thdomestic buildings, mostly of locally-quarried Corallian limestone rubblewith roofs of thatch or tile. They are scattered through the remainder ofthe settlement, and lack the group value of above, although individuallythey are still of intrinsic interest. Amongst the older examples, probablyC16th-C17th, are No.27 on the road to the mill (PRN 8068) and the firstcottage S of the church on the W side of the road (PRN 8063). Somewhatlater, perhaps C17th-C18th, is the house opposite the Star Inn (PRN 8066).PRN 8064, an C18th stone cottage, bears a fine oval firemark depicting aphoenix and spear, inscribed 'PROTECTION'.