Description

TEWKESBURY

SO83SE GLOUCESTER ROAD
859-1/2/174 (West side)
04/03/52 Gubshill Manor Inn
(Formerly Listed as:
GLOUCESTER ROAD
(West side)
Gubshill Manor Hotel)

II

Inn, formerly manor house. Parts reputedly from 1438, with a
tradition that Queen Margaret slept here at the time of the
Battle of Tewkesbury (1471); mainly C16 and C17, major
restoration 1707. Braced square panel timber-framing, rendered
or painted brick panels, some painted brick underbuilding,
tile roof.
PLAN: what remains is part of a formerly more extensive manor
house, including a substantial C17 stone block to the right of
the existing. This is now a 3-gabled unit; the section to the
left has a wide gable to a lofty transverse roof with rear
eaves stack. The central unit with the principal fireplace,
and stack to the left eaves, is a deep wing, with a lower
gable in the same front plane, and a third, set-back gabled
wing with cat-slide roof to the right. The main staircase is
in the front of this end unit.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and attics, 2 and 3-light casements. The
set-back gable has a small plain oculus, and a plank entrance
door to the right. The return (N) front has a 3-light gabled
dormer, and a recessed window within the roof slope at
first-floor level. The later work, built under the swept-down
roof, includes an inset loggia to the W. The back (W) wall is
twin gabled, with various casements, and continuous brick
underbuild.
At low level there is a fragment of stone walling remaining
from the demolished section of the house. The S gable end is
in painted brick with applied timbering.
INTERIOR: the entrance lobby contains the principal C17
staircase, a combination of dogleg and open well, with large
square capped newels and a broad moulded handrail on
replacement turned balusters.
The ground-floor room of principal interest is in the middle
unit. In 2 sections, with a rebuilt bressumer fireplace in a
thick stone wall containing a series of stone cusped
panel-heads approx 250mm deep and 3.5m long, built in above
mantel level, plus, to the right a large inset stone niche
with head, possibly from the Abbey church. This room and the
one adjoining to the W has a longitudinal brattished and
moulded beam with a series of mortices alternating with
stopped mouldings without mortice, as for a compartmental
ceiling. In the smaller room, at a lower level, to the W, this
beam and moulding is carried round as a cornice.
The first-floor restaurant has a framed front wall with curved
tension bracing. A 4-light casement has some ovolo-moulded
members. The central section, down 2 steps, and with a small
single light, has chamfered beams, and beyond this, through an
opened timber partition, the space has a transverse chamfered
beam, carried on a large corner post corresponding with the
central gable above, and a small corner fireplace.
The attics are not at present in use, and the roof spaces were
not fully inspected, but in the main S section the structure
is propped collar with a single purlin; no wind bracing
visible.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the history of the Manor of Gubshill is
covered in VCH (p133), and records that by c1835 the house was
split into 2 dwellings, and later into tenements. By 1931 it
was a hotel. Old photographs (Ross etc) show a gabled stone
manor house, with a prominent date of 1665. Ross wrongly
records one of the two units of the house as being pulled down
in 1835, but it obviously survived until late in the C19.
(Victoria County History: Gloucestershire: London: 1968-: 133;
Ross K: The Book of Tewkesbury: London: 1986-: 123).

Listing NGR: SO8938131439

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26496974

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

• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)