HELMDON ROAD
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Left

Eagle House was built in the first half of the 18th century, of random rubble limestone, with ashlar on the front elevation, and with a thatched roof. Possibly in the early 19th century, the frontage was extended, and later a wing was added to the rear.

Eagle House

There is also a single-storey 20th century brick extension.The house continued to serve as a farmhouse until the 1930s. It has parapetted gables, with corbels, kneelers and finials, and the roof is now of blue slate. There is one sash window, the others are timber casements - some of the first floor rear ones are possibly original. The flat-roofed dormers (one at the front, three at the rear) date from the 1970s, when the house was extensively modernised. The chimneys are of blue brick, on stone bases. There is a cellar, and the interior contains a large stone fireplace of Jacobean date, presumably removed from elsewhere.

Eagles Court was built in the early 1980s on the site of part of Eagles House farmyard. It has a brownstone front, with a porch with pitched roof, and rear and gable walls of grey brick; the roof is tiled, and the timber-framed windows are of casement type.

Wisteria Cottage is of the 19th century, mainly of random rubble limestone but with a frontage of rough red brick. The hip roof is slated; the windows are casements. Here, until c. 1950, was a cycle shop, where one could also buy paraffin - two important items in earlier days!

Wisteria Cottage

Southland Cottage was once two 18th century thatched cottages, of mixed pale limestone and brown marlstone. They were converted into one house in the 1950s. There are brick chimneys, steel and timber windows and a tiled roof. Until after the 1939-45 war this was the last house on this side of the Helmdon Road.

The name Stable Court conveys the 'farmyard' origins of the site of this chalet bungalow. Its walls are of stone, and it has a grey tiled roof and casement windows. It was enlarged to the rear in 1990.

Mulberries (1981/2) and The Blades (1980/1) are large houses of reconstructed limestone blocks, with tiled roofs. The former has timber casements, the latter has aluminium window frames.

Wykham was built in 1950 of golden stock bricks from London bombsites. It is a chalet bungalow, with two bay windows. The overhanging roof, supported on brackets, was at first of cedarwood shingles, but these were replaced with interlocking tiles in the 1980s. The windows are steel, in wooden frames. Willow House stands on part of the garden originally belonging to Wykham. The house (1989) is of brick, with tiled roof and timber casement windows. Ferns was built in the early 1970s; it is a brick chaltet bungalow with tiled roof and aluminium casement windows. Brookside (1950) is in most details similar to Wykham, but the roof is now of asbestos slates and the window frames are UPVC-covered. Green Gables (early 1980s), like Ferns, was built on part of Brookside's garden (hence the fact that Brookside is no longer by the side of the brook!). It is of Guiting stone, with tiled roof and timber casements.

Slightly outside the limits of the village itself are two bungalows: Meadow View and Hill Crest. These were erected in 1923/4, of factory made timber construction. Both were subsequently cased in brickwork, in the 1970s and 1980s, with asbestos slate roofs; Meadow View was also extended to the rear.

Right

Corner House is a large stone late 18th century house - there is a datestone in the gable end with the inscription J C E 1779 - built of random rubble, with some coursed work and some ashlar. At one time roofed with thatch and later with stone slates, the front section is now roofed in grey concrete tiles and the rear wing with blue slates.

Corner House

The gables are parapetted, with copings and corbels; the chimneys are of blue brick, on stone bases. The windows are all casements, some with leaded lights. There is a single-storey annex with blue slate hipped roof. On the front of the house there are two square bay windows, and above the door a stone slab shelter supported by stone brackets similar to those on Queens House.

Stone Court is a 20th century bungalow of random rubble limestone, with grey brick dressings to windows and doors; the hipped roof is of concrete tiles. There are two large bay windows with crenellated parapet walls. The sash windows were recovered from Marston St. Lawrence Manor House.

Bentleys Farmhouse, no longer a working farm, probably dates from the early 18th century. It is of limestone, mainly coursed, with some ashlar in the south face and east gable end. The second storey has half pitched dormers set in a blue slate roof. In the years 1989/91 it was extensively renovated and enlarged, with a double garage and room above linked to the main house; this extension is of coursed limestone, with some darker marlstone. There are timber casement windows. On the roadside immediately below the farmhouse is a tiny cottage (now derelict 1992), but occupied until about 1979 in which there once lived a family withs seven children.

Bentleys Farm Bungalow was built of brick in 1988, with tiled roof and timber casement windows.

Burnbrae and St. Hilary were at one time a row of four 19th century cottages, each one up and one down, of local brick. These were converted into three cottages in 1932, and into two in 1960. They have asbestos slate roofs and modern timber casements. Brunbrae is partly rendered, and displays a curious mixture of building materials, including the stone gable wall of a yet older cottage.

The Cottage is an 18th century cottage (originally thatched), of random rubble. It now has brick chimneys, asbestos slate roof and still some of its original windows. Much of the upper walling is now of brick, providing evidence of the raising of the roof level. Adjoining is Mielva, a stone built bungalow, partly rendered,with asbestos slate roof. It too has 18th century origins.

Hill Cottage is a 19th century brick cottage, with a recent brick flat-roofed two storey extension to the rear. It has a slate roof and timber framed windows, some now replaced by UPVC. In the 1920s a small private school was based there. On the wide verge below Hill Cottage there stood until the 1950s a small thatched cottage, demolished to make room for a new telephone exchange (which was never built).

Hill Cottage

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