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

• Wikidata Q26496974

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Recommended Books

• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)