Untitled - Council for British Archaeology

83The two surviving pubs in the village are both at its southern end.The George Inn (PRN 8067), facing onto the B.4027 Islip-Wheatley road,formerly part of the main London-Worcester road, is a picturesque twostoreybuilding of colourwashed rubbled with a tiled roof and a singlestoreythatched extension, probably C17th. The Star Inn (PRN 8065), justto the N is dated 1723. A third inn, the Chequers, listed in Gardner's1852 Directory, stood between the Star and the Church; it was demolishedaround 1890.The village school (PRN 2408) is at the southernmost extremity of thesettlement, and is the only important element of the village to lie on theopposite side of the B.4027. It has its origins in a bequest by DameElizabeth Holford in 1717., but it was not until 1767 that a school andmaster's house was built on a site given by New College. In 1874 £400 whichhad accumulated from the original charity was spent on building a new school.The original schoolhouse of 1767 was, however, allowed to remain: a stonehouse with hipped tiled roof and large brick chimneys at either end stillforms the nucleus of the later school buildings, the whole being enclosedby a high stone garden wall running up to the main road.The mill stands at the E end of the village. Two watermills in theparish are documented in 1279 and 1316, but only one survived by the end ofthe Cl5th. A terrier of 1629 lists the water-mill, mill-house, dwellinghouse,cottage, two closes and four acres in the open fields then in thetenure of George Hobbes. The actual corn-mill is now demolished, its siterepresented by low stone walls, but the mill house remains (PRN 1015), atwo-storey building of C16th-C17th date, the ground floor stone, the upperstorey timber-framed, the roof stone-tiled, with a central stone chimney.There are two large detached houses in the village standing in theirown grounds. The Rectory (PRN 8062) stands to the W of the church. Thepresent building is a large two-storey ashlar building with a slate roof,its front of four bays, with a two-storey angular bay to one side. This replacedan earlier parsonage-house described in a terrier of 1685 and illustratedby Skelton - a large, irregular, jettied and gabled house, with orieland bay windows with stone mullions, that survived until c.1842. StantonHouse, on the N side of the village, still retains the remains of watergardens.The house itself dates from the late C19th, and is of no specialinterest.Brick does not appear in Stanton St. John before the C19th, and thenonly in limited quantity. Rose Cottage, which bears the date 1843, is stillentirely of stone, now whitened. Freelands, the next house to the NW, isalso of stone, but has brick quoins and dressings. The most interestingelement at this N end of the village is, however, the terrace called FreelandCottages. This is a row of six cottages in red brick with a continuous bandof yellow brick running the length of the terrace, and window lintels in thesame contrasting material. The roof is of Welsh slate. A stone plaque inthe centre of the terrace gives the date 1872. The front doors are pairedunder porches with wooden brackets and valencing. Most of the houses retaintheir original windows, but the recent refenestration of the easternmosthouse is an example of the 'improvemnts' which can insidiously lead to aslow erosion of character. Located as it is, in the convex curve of thenorthern approach road, this terrace provides an interesting visual introduction,to the village centre.The only other C19th houses of any particular interest are the pair ofsemi-detached stone estate cottages of two storeys with Welsh slate roofs onthe E side of the southward street, which bear the arms of New College.