Description

TEWKESBURY

SO8932 HIGH STREET 859-1/6/265 (East side) 04/03/52 No.140 Clarence House (Formerly Listed as: HIGH STREET (East side) No.140 (Clarence House) and No.141)

GV II*

House in row, with shop. Early C16, refronted c1650, and raised late C17; interior remodelled in C17, mainly c1650. Close-stud timber-framing, plaster infill, tile roof, brick stacks. PLAN: A front with jettied stages lies well forward from the original side-entry right-angle plan front range, the top floor having a flat roof and deep bracket eaves; the long rear wing is gabled, with C20 extensions at ground floor level. The central well staircase is fronted by a full-width main room, with a narrower wing beyond. EXTERIOR: 4 storeys and basement. The top floor has a central 2-light casement flanked by horizontal elliptical bulls-eyes with a central mullion, and 4 keys. At first and second floors the windows run the full width of the front, with a central canted oriel, 10 lights in all, with a transom but 3 mullions have been removed from the first-floor central lower lights. The plate-glass C19 shop front has fluted pilasters, and a deep-recessed central doorway. All the framing members have sunk panel enrichment, some including a trefoil head, and the window members are all moulded. The bressumers above first and second floors are moulded, and there are shaped jetty-brackets. The top eaves soffit has long scrolled brackets and a moulded cornice, and the returns have a carved bracket and wall decoration. The brick stack is to the left party wall, at the beginning of the high gable. INTERIOR: The ground-floor shop has very large posts to the front, but the bressumer is concealed. There are 4 bays on varied posts and beams; one has an ovolo-moulded post and a chamfered and stopped beam. The basement is not accessible. The first-floor front room has a very fine mid C17 4-compartment ceiling with high relief decoration of a wreath with rosettes, and winged cherub-heads to the spandrels. A broad beam has egg-and-dart and palmette enrichment, carried round the periphery of the room and into the central oriel. The window members are ovolo-moulded, and early catches remain. The fireplace, in the party wall to the left, is late C19. The rear room has a prominent cruck-like corner post, and a cambered central beam. The tight well C17 stair, in stripped hardwood, has a large moulded solid string, square newels with ball finials, bold turned balusters and heavy handrail; there is a wall-rail swept round the well. The second-floor front has a massive central transverse beam with sunk soffits, all plastered and with cornice mould. The third floor has a very large plain transverse beam, with a cruck-like prop, and there are 2 blocked lights, one of these with an ovolo-moulded transom. A rear attic room has one large rough purlin, and light wind-bracing. There are various frame members throughout the building; one large tie-beam has been cut into to allow access to an upper level. The mid C17 refronting has strong similarities to that at No.132 (qv). A very fine merchant's house, the mid C17 remodelling including some notable features such as the rare surviving plasterwork to the first-floor main chamber. (VCH: Gloucestershire: London: 1968-: 130; Buildings of England: Verey D: Gloucestershire: The Vale and the Forest of Dean: London: 1970-: 377).

Listing NGR: SO8931032762

External Links

• Wikidata Q17538461

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Recommended Books

• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)