Description

BELSAY SHORTFLATT
NZ 08 SE

4/70 Shortflatt Tower
27.8.52

GV I

House and tower. Licence to crenellate 1305 for Robert de Reynes, but most
existing work is later. The tower seems late C15 or early C16, the attached
house early C17 incorporating and re-using earlier masonry. Squared stone.
Tower has stone slate roof, other parts Welsh slate.

3-storey tower; 2-storey house attached to east and 2 parallel wings running
north from house.

South (garden) front: Tower, projecting on left, has chamfered plinth and
irregularly-placed early C19 sashes. Inner return has Tudor-arched doorway,
now a window; left half of lintel with relief carving of shield and panel, the
right half uncarved. Hollow-chamfered base to battlemented parapet with
stone water spouts. Steeply-pitched gabled roof with end stacks.

Attached house of 4 irregular bays has C18 12-pane sashes beneath early C17
string courses which rise above each window. Roof hipped on right. Enormous
ridge stack between 3rd and 4th bays. Roof marks on stack reveal that the
building was formerly 3 storeys (cf. interior).

North (entrance) side has C19 Tudor-style doorway into tower. Similar windows,
several in double-chamfered surrounds. In tower one enlarged C16 window with
chamfered surround and 3 blocked similar windows. North-east corner of tower
has a small single-storey projection of older masonry with a double plinth.

Interior: tower has tunnel-vaulted ground floor; one jamb of a recently
discovered (1985) large C16 or C17 fireplace on 1st floor; and a possibly re-
set earlier medieval fireplace, with chamfered jambs and corbels supporting
flat lintel, on the 2nd floor. Massive C16 roof timbers.

In the roof space of the adjoining wing a C16 or early C17 fireplace, also
vestiges of plasterwork proving existence of former second floor. In the
dining room a wood Rococo fire surround and contemporary Delft tiles.
H. Honeyman considered the tower to be of 1305 but more recent information
from Mrs. L. Milner (pers. comm.) suggest the later date.

An extremely picturesque house.
Archaeologia Aeliana 4th Series XXXII, 1954, pp 126-159.

Listing NGR: NZ0793780995

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17527485

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 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)