Description

TEWKESBURY

SO8932 HIGH STREET 859-1/6/192 (West side) 04/03/52 No.15 (Formerly Listed as: HIGH STREET (West side) No.15 The Ancient Grudge Cafe)

GV II*

Former hotel and cafe, empty at time of survey (November 1991). Late C16 refronting of early C16 house. Close-studded timber-frame with herring-bone strutting, plaster panels, tile roof, brick stack. PLAN: the double-jettied front block has the roof parallel with the street, a throughway to the left, and a long wing rear service/hall to the right, with a half-hipped outer gable. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and basement, 2-windowed. At second floor are 4-pane sashes in raised moulded jambs and head, with a small single light on the return to the left. At first floor, under a jetty, are slightly canted oriels with 2:4:2-pane sashes. The ground floor has a C19 shop front in 2 canted bays with sashes, on moulded cills, and a central part-glazed 2-panel door with a shallow transom-light. To the left is an early plank door with vertical battens in a 4-centred timber head and spandrels with carved dragon or lion figures, on a stone step. At first and second floors the jetty is carried on 3 decorative consoles, with a plain bressumer fascia and top mould. Above the second-floor windows is a fascia band with brackets to a deep entablature or blocking to a moulded parapet, all in timber, and containing a concealed gutter. The main roof, visible from the street, is in poor condition, with loose tiles, at the time of survey. A lofty brick eaves stack to the rear eaves, to the right. The wing is in timber-framing with brick nogging, and with tile roof, but on the S side the former jetty has been underbuilt in brick. At the junction of this wing with the back of the main building, which is here in small-panel framing with rendering, is, at first floor, a canted section joining the 2 parts. A raking 2-light dormer, and at first floor a wide 2-light casement. In the gable is an early 4-light casement. INTERIOR: not accessible, but previous list notes doors with linenfold panelling, and fine carved moulded ceiling beams. SR Jones (VCH) notes c1530 moulded beams to ground-floor front room, with ceiling boss carved with Agnus Dei, 4-centred moulded fireplace with initials RB and fragments of linenfold panelling. Rear wing may have been divided into hall and service rooms. An early and architecturally distinguished example, in West Midlands carpentry school style, of the refrontings which were a characteristic feature of Tewkesbury c1570-1670. (Victoria County History: Gloucestershire: London: 1968-: 130).

Listing NGR: SO8929232812

External Links

• Wikidata Q17539202

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Recommended Books

• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)