17th Century Images of Wytham Abbey
During late summer and autumn 2022, Nick Wright, a historic buildings advisor of Donald Insall Associates, made an in-depth study of Wytham Abbey. As Nick himself puts it, “I carry out archive research and analyze buildings to understand their history and significance, feeding into historic building reports and conservation management plans,” and the work he has undertaken will prove particularly valuable both for us as custodians — and for the local authority, and Historic England — when we reach the stage of applying for listed building consent to carry out repairs.
The building has evolved and grown significantly since the early 16th century, and Nick’s wonderfully thorough research makes this evolution legible for the first time.
Nick has also notably pushed back the date of the earliest known image of the building (below) from the 18th century to the 17th; the annotations below are Nick’s.
The earliest known view of Wytham House, showing the east elevation of the building as it appeared in the 17th century (Bodleian Library)
Detail from Knyff and Kip’s illustration of Wytham for ‘Britannia Illustrata’ (Bodleian Library)
Henry Taunt’s view of the stair hall, at the end of the 19th century. The object to the right of the stair is a solid fuel furnace heater (Historic England)