Description

ST 67 NW STOKE GIFFORD STOKE PARK

4/14 Dower House

G.V. II*

Country house, now hospital. Circa 1760, may include elements of C16 manor house, altered c.1800. James Paty, perhaps following Thomas Wright of Durham. Roughcast, coped and battlemented parapets. H-plan. South elevation, 3 storeys, 5 windows in centre, 3 in wings which terminate in canted bays, windows altered, mainly to glazing bar sashes, between wings, ground floor only comes forward with glazed colonnade under pierced battlements, plat and cill bands between ground and first floors. Return elevation west has 6 very plain and altered bays, middle 3 recessed, ground floor retains 3 original glazing bar sashes, battlemented parapet. Return elevation east: 7 very plain bays, all glazing bar sashes under keystones, plat and cill bands, battlements. North (entrance) elevation; as south with Gothic porch of c.1800, painted Berkeley motto 'Mihi Vobisque'and 2 C20 fire escapes. Interior: 3 rooms with plasterwork attributed to Thomas Stocking remain: east corner room has a screen of Doric columns, entablature has masks, ox-skulls and trophies, the ceiling has a central feature of 4 Bacchanalion figures, around this, a band is crossed and surrounded by roses, this motif is expanded in the bay where there is an elaborate flower basket; the central eastern room was formerly a music room, the delicate ceiling includes violin, pipes of Pan and a recorder; the south octagonal room has a complete suite of moulded and fielded panelled doors with eared architraves, shutters and reveals and a bolection moulded fireplace with floral swags; the large cantilevered open well staircase has a heavily moulded handrail and thin turned balusters, early C19 plasterwork has Greek key roundel. Built for Norborne Berkeley, the house passed at his death in 1770 to the Beauforts and was the dower house to Badminton until 1907. (Atkyns, History of Gloucestershire, 1712: J. Jancar, Research at Stoke Park, 1981: D. Verey, Buildings of England : Gloucestershire, The Vale and the Forest of Dean, 1970).

Listing NGR: ST6223377251

External Links

• The Dower House at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7730778

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)