MAGPIE ROAD
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Forge Cottage

Forge Cottage stands on the corner of School Street. It is one of the oldest houses in the village, built of random rubble stonework and still with its thatched roof. It has been much altered during its history. In common with those of many other old houses, its chimneys have been rebuilt in brick. Its interior includes oak beams, an inglenook fireplace and a curved staircase. On the Magpie Road side it has now incorporated part of the old wheelwright's shop, existing until 1935; until quite recently a pair of large wooden doors gave access to the workshop. Near here was a sawpit, where travelling sawyers used to saw tree-trunks into planks. Next door, The Cottage was built in 1924 on part of the site of the wheelwright's shop. It is of random coursed limstone, from earlier demolitions, and was extended in 1990 in matching materials. The roof is of concrete tiles, the chimneys are in light red bricks, and the timber windows are of casement type. There is a half-timbered porch on stone base walls.

The next three houses were built in the mid-1980s; Kirkleys and Donbury House are of reconstituted limestone blocks and Farndale of Bradstone artificial stone. All have tile roofs and modern casement windows. Beyond, Castle Hill Bungalow was erected in 1931 of red brick with asbestos slate roof, but was partly demolished, extended and encased in Hornton stone in 1971, with stone chimneys and a grey tile roof.

The Old Vicarage, succeeding an earlier house which was destroyed by fire in the mid-18th century, was built in about 1770 of random rubble or rough coursed Helmdon limestone. It was extended in about 1820 and again in 1880, using ashlar stone. External features include a stone first-floor oriel window, and parapetted gables to the main roof. The house was extensively modernised in 1989-90. The chimneys are of ashlar, the roof is covered in small blue tiles, and the wooden windows are a mixture of sash and casement.

The Old Vicarage

The Church Hall, built of limestone and brick with roof of slates, was formerly an outbuilding belonging to the vicarage next door, and was attached to it via a kitchen (since demolished). The larger part, then known as the Parochial Hall - or familiarly as the Poke Hole - was for many years used for village functions, while the smaller room was let as a garage. With the help of the local branch of the British Legion, various improvements were carried out, including the joining of the two sections to form the present L-shaped hall, and a new kitchen was added. Since about 1979 the Hall has been leased by the Diocese to the Parochial Church Council, and is managed by a sub-committee of the P.C.C.

Glebe Barn, on the edge of the village, was originally an 18th century barn of rough chopped and coursed local limestone. It was converted into a house in 1987, and now has green roof tiles, brick chimneys and leaded-light glazing.

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Sulgrave Court, fomerly Sulgrave Farmhouse, probably dates from the 17th century, being at that time a thatched farmhouse of rough coursed limestone. Subsequently it has been much added to and renovated. The front elevation is now of coursed ashlar; the thatch was replaced by blue slates in the 1860s and the stonework of the north elevation dates from the same period. The flat-roofed west wing, of brown Hornton stone, was added in 1922. Further work was done on the building in the 1950s and again in the 1980s and it is now one of the largest houses in the village. The raised gables have copings, with kneelers and corbels. The windows are a mixture of sash and casement, and there are flat-roofed dormers. The first floor of the outbuilding which fronts the road was converted into Courthouse Flat in the later 1980s.

Sulgrave Court (formerly Sulgrave Farmhouse)

The Old School (now usually known as the Reading Room) was built by John Hodges in 1720 as a charity school for ten poor scholars; the datestone includes the initials H I M, for John and his wife Mary (in those days J was normally written as I). The thatch was replaced by blue Bangor slates in the 1890s. The walls are of random rubble. The original gables have stone parapets, with rounded corbels, kneelers and finials. The fine sundial above the door was restored in the 1950s. The building served as a school until a new one was built in 1822. After a period of disuse it was used as a cycle-shop by the owner of Wisteria Cottage. It now accommodates the village Billiard Club and serves as the meeting-room of Sulgrave Parish Council.

The former Reading Room

Spinners Cottages were built in three stages, which accounts for the rather confusing number sequence. Numbers 1 to 8, of brick with pebble dash finish, and tiled roofs, were put up in 1921; numbers 9 to 14, brick-built, in 1935-6; and finally the two flats 1A and 1B in 1960, pebble-dashed with leaded-light windows. Most of the cottages were renovated in 1990 and now have plastic-framed casement windows. The interesting name is derived from the fact that nearby was the site of a rope-walk, where ropes for church-bells and other purposes were spun.

Dial House is one of the oldest houses in the village, with a 1636 datestone set in the single-storey porch (an unusual feature in local houses of this period), along with the sundial which gives the house its name. The original section of the house is of random rubble or rough coursed limestone, with brown marlstone, probably from Eydon, for quoins, window-dressings and, on the gables, copings, kneelers and corbels, as well as for decorative effect elsewhere. The eastern third of the house, now including the kitchen, was added in about 1650. Here the window-dressings are in the pale limestone. The cross-sections of the stone mullions are of two different styles; the earlier ones, in brownstone, are of the type known as 'carvetto', and the later ones are in the slightly more complex 'ovolo' style, for which the pale limestone was more easily worked. The fine stonework around the door and above the windows is confiend to the road frontage and to the west gable-end. The house has kept its thatched roof; the chimneys are of blue brick on a stone base.

Dial House

The last dwelling in this direction is Horseshoe Cottage, a brick built bungalow of the 1960s, with brown tile roof and timber casement windows.

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