Description

TEWKESBURY

SO8932 HIGH STREET 859-1/6/261 (East side) 04/03/52 No.135

GV II*

House in row, with shop. C16, raised late C17 (VCH). Timber-frame with plaster panels, tile roof, brick stacks. PLAN: A treble-jettied, hipped range, double-depth right-angle plan with stair and chimney breast at party wall, left, back. The top floor has slightly different framing from the remainder; it is said to be a replacement of a former cock-loft. EXTERIOR: 4 storeys and basement, 2-windowed. Second and third floors have 3-light casements with a horizontal bar in slightly raised moulded mullions and frame, including cill. First floor, under a moulded bressumer with brattished top, has a wide 1:6:1-light canted oriel with transom. Ground floor has a full-width 5-light shop front including recessed central door, with pilasters and consoles, to plain fascia and moulded cornice with decorative cast-iron cresting. The upper floors have close stud and mid-rail framing, and the top floor includes decorative serpentine bracing. Dentil eaves and concealed gutter. INTERIOR: the ground floor has been opened up, including a large rear extension, but the party walls have heavy stud framing, and, to the right, one very large brace is exposed. There are regular large haunched posts with chamfered beams, and inside the under-built shop front is a heavy bressumer on a post with decorative jetty-bracket to the right (that to the left is concealed by later fittings). At the back, left, is a wooden stair to the probably C16 cellar, which has stone in the party walls and the main rear wall. The front wall has a long adit, up 2 stone steps, to a pavement access, and the right party wall has arched brick bins, covering flat pointed arches in brick to the inner wall. Central large chamfered beam. The chimney stack, in the back left corner, is carried on a corbelled flat squinch. The staircase rises in a heavily framed compartment through 3 floors, but crosses to the opposite side for the top floor. It is a C17 dogleg design with twisted balusters, square newels, and a solid moulded string, all in polished oak. The first-floor front is a fully panelled room, some original C17, including the frieze, and some of late C19. The fireplace is in the back left corner. There is one broad chamfered and stopped beam on panelled posts. The wide floor-boards remain, and 2 slender 'Batty Langley' cast-iron columns have been inserted in the oriel window. At the second floor is a cut-down door with 6 linen-fold panels in early framing. The diagonal fireplace has an C18 surround with pulvinated frieze and moulded mantel; the inset includes a series of 'Delft' tiles. There are close-spaced chamfered beams on haunched posts, and the party wall to the left has close-stud framing at the front, with square panel framing for the major part. The third floor is open to the roof, which retains framing from the original building, to which the hipped unit has been added, on one purlin. There is a propped central beam, the purlin to the original roof, and an access hatch at the ridge. The framing of the original gables is exposed, with a blocked 2-light casement on the N side, and a small light to the S, overlooking adjoining roofs. A fine C16 merchant's house; the position of the staircase, characteristic of mid and later C17 town house plans elsewhere (the Llandoger Trow in Bristol for example), suggests that the interior was replanned during the late C17 remodelling. (Buildings of England: Verey D: Gloucestershire: The Vale and the Forest of Dean: London: 1970-: 376; Victoria County History: Gloucestershire: London: 1968-: 130).

Listing NGR: SO8930932789

External Links

• Wikidata Q17541004

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Recommended Books

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  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
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  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
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  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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