The manor of Brians
Medieval Wantage was divided between several manors. The smaller of the two main ones was called Brians, after the Brian family who held it in the 13th and 14th centuries. It later passed through the FitzWarin, Hungerford and Bodenham families, and in the early 18th century it belonged to the Grahams, a Wantage family. In 1752 members of the Graham family conveyed it to Thomas Garrard, who seems to have been acting for William Stirling. Stirling is said to have bought the manor that year.
Building Stirlings
In the second half of the 18th century Stirling built himself a house at the east end of Wallingford Street and gave it his own name. When the Victoria County History described the town in 1924, Stirlings was still standing. It was one of a number of substantial Georgian houses built in Wantage in that century by landowners, lawyers and merchants.
Behind the house stood a stable block of the mid-18th century, which the national list describes in some detail. It was built of brick in Flemish bond with red brick dressings and an old tile roof, and it was laid out on a gentle crescent. A two-storey centre had a wide elliptical arch with stone keystone and imposts, and single-storey wings on either side had round-headed arches. There was a dentilled cornice under the eaves and a dovecote with brick nesting holes. Inside, much of the original roof timber survived.
After the Stirlings
The manor did not stay long in the family. Stirling’s son gave it to his nephew Robert Crosby, who sold it in 1822 to Joseph Butler. It passed to Butler’s younger son George, who in 1826 conveyed it to Charles Hammond. Hammond left it to his daughter, and in 1924 her son, Captain Brooks, was the owner.
The house and its stables were listed together on 22 April 1950. Both have since been demolished; the list entry, amended in 1985, now records the stabling as demolished. The name lives on in Stirlings Road, north of the town centre.