The Hill (west): Nos 188-192

The basic plan suggests that these three cottages began as a medieval hall-house, remodelled with fireplaces and first floor in the mid 17th century. The doorway to The Cottage (No. 188, right) leads to a through-passage, to the right of which was probably the service end. Hound Cottage (No. 190) replaced the hall, while Clematis Cottage (No. 192) was built on the site of the solar or high-status room. The casement windows are all replacements, and the ground-floor window to The Cottage was once taller. The door is 20th-century.

From the late 16th century to c.1862 the property belonged to the trustees of Burford Grammar School. Lessees, recorded from 1587, included Matthew and Richard Winfield, sieve-makers (1650s and 1680s–90s), and the masons Jonathan and Robert Osman (1704 and 1727). In 1651 it was described as a 'house'. Its division into 3 cottages probably took place in the early 19th century, and occupiers from the 1840s were masons, sawyers, agricultural labourers, and carpenters. In 1859 No. 192 was 'very dilapidated'.

See: M Laithwaite, 'The Buildings of Burford', in A Everitt (ed), Perspectives in English Urban History (1973), 80; RH Gretton, The Burford Records (1920) 323, 328, 330–2, 346, 458, 519–20, 562