Description

TEWKESBURY

SO8932 CHURCH STREET
859-1/6/104 (South side)
04/03/52 Nos.34-39 (Consecutive)
Abbey Lawn Cottages

GV I

Terrace of town houses. C15 or early C16, restored 1967 seq.
Braced box timber-framing, tile roofs, brick stacks.
Part of very long row of late medieval cottages, previously
extending from Nos 34-51 (qv); narrow 1-room frontage in 2
storeys and attics, jettied to Church Street, and with various
gabled or swept-down extensions at back. This group returns to
gable end at left, and is stopped to No.40 (qv) with later
front, to right.
EXTERIOR: 7 bays, each with a 4-light narrow casement window
in box framing above a 2-light timber mullion and transom
small-pane casement set in painted vertical boarding above
plate on rough coursed stone plinth. To right of each a plank
door in cusped flat ogee head, on 2 stone steps, and bracket
to jetty to right. Opening to No.39 has iron grille to
throughway. Left gable end has paired 2-light to attic, above
2-light to first floor, and one small with 3 normal casements
to ground floor. Back has brick extension to Nos 34 & 35, and
2 further broad gabled timber-framed wings, with intermediate
lean-to under swept down roof; series of 2-light dormers, on 2
levels, with long raking tiled roofs.
INTERIOR: No.36 (National Trust Shop) is typical with fine
stone fire surround to cambered bressumer, central transverse
moulded beam and chamfered spine beam to heavy ceiling joists.
C17 staircase with turned balusters. Part of a terrace of
houses, built as a speculative development for the Abbey and
each originally planned with a heated hall behind the shop
providing access to an upper chamber, as reconstructed at
No.45 (qv) which has been restored to original postulated plan
form: a most significant example of a medieval terrace.
A rumoured threat to these cottages in the 1930s led to their
being acquired by the Abbey Lawn Trustees. Frontages and
interiors had been much modified, and it was scarcely
recognisable as a coherent terrace. In 1965 the Trustees
applied for permission to demolish, but inspection of site by
SPAB revealed the significance of the structures, and they
were substantially refurbished to their current condition from
1967 onwards. Photographs of before and after state can be
inspected in No.45 (qv), the so-called Merchant's House, and
NMR has photographs of buildings before restoration.

Listing NGR: SO8910332534

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17526393

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

• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)