High Street (east): No. 99

This extensive corner site was assembled from three separate narrow properties in 1839–41, by the linen draper William G. Westrope. Eighteenth-century occupants had included the apothecary Nicholas Willett (on the north), the hatter Moses Smith (middle), and the saddlers Solomon and James Jeffs (corner plot). The combined buildings remained a draper's until the early 20th century, run at first by Westrope (1840s to 1890s), and later by Alfred Parsons (1880s) and Alfred Thomas (1890s–c.1911).
Some surviving internal features (such as the massive beams supporting the first floor) suggest 16th-century origins for the building, and outbuildings along Witney Street are of 17th- and 18th-century date. The main building and High Street frontage were almost completely rebuilt in the 1920s by E.J. Horniman of The Priory, however. Despite the authentic Burford mix of stone and timber, traditional methods were not used: the wall-plate is not a continuous or jointed timber, the studs are not pegged into it, and several iron bolts are visible. By 1939 the rebuilt property was established as the Corner House Hotel, which remained open in 2007 as the Burford House Hotel.
Content generated during research for the paperback book 'Burford: Buildings and People in a Cotswold Town' (ISBN 13 : 9781860774881) for the England's Past for Everyone series