The Eight Gabled House

Details

SP 01 NW DOWDESWELL LOWER DOWDESWELL 5/36 Eight Gables House 23/01/52

the entry shall be amended to read:

SP 01 NW DOWDESWELL LOWER DOWDESWELL 5/36 The Eight Gabled Home (Formerly listed as:LOWER DOWDESWELL, Eight Gables House) 23/01/52 GV 11* (star)

Large detached house. Late C16 with extensive restoration mid C20. Coursed squared and dressed limestone, stone slate roofs, ashlar stacks. PLAN: An unusually regular square plan, with twin gables to each elevation; a long central staircase hall is entered from the north side, flanked by a square room each side, and with a thick fireplace wall running transversely across the full width, but the flues gathered to one central stack. The ground floor has beyond this wall a full width room, probably divided in the original layout, and at f1rst floor are four near-square rooms, open to the roof structure, but with a bathroom inserted in the C20 in part of the south-east room. EXTERIOR: The elevations are also regular, all windows at ground and first floors are recessed hollow-chamfer stone-mullioned casements with stopped hood moulds, and in each gable is a single round-headed light, without hood-mould. The entrance front has a central 2-light flanked by 2-light, and the ground floor has a 4-light each side of the 4-centred doorway in broad flush surround to a plank door; a continuous hood mould is raised slightly over the doorway. The other fronts are similar, but with a 3-light centrally to the first floor, and with 3-lights to the ground floor, and with individual hood-moulds; the west front has had a large late C20 glazed doorway inserted to the end of the ground floor long room. All gables have saddle-back copings, and the central stack has two conjoined shafts, with moulded capping. To the left of the entrance front is a well, set against the corner of the building which is splayed at the ground floor above it. INTERIOR: Entrance hall, with a stone-flagged floor, is flanked by full-height timber-framed partitions, mainly in close studding, but with some square framing to the first floor. Ground floor rooms have broad beams with stopped chamfers, and exposed, mainly original beams. The kitchen, to the left, has a stone floor, a central beam, and a modified wide fireplace with a cambered wood bressumer. The room to the right, at a slightly lower level has a central and 2 cornice beams, very wide fireplace with large bressumer on chamfered stone cheeks and bread oven, with, to its right, a rounded recess with cobble floor, possibly a former curing chamber. The transverse end room has a C20 oak plank floor and 4 beams, one of which may have been repositioned, as they are not evenly spaced; this .room has the large inserted glazed French doorway. The staircase has a balustrade with heavy handrail, splat balusters, square newels with open finial cappings, one of these a C20 replacement, and a solid string; there is no string or housing on the partition side, and the staircase has a somewhat improvised appearance. The bedrooms have revealed principals, with rough and heavy tie-beams at approx 1.8m from floor level. The house seems to have been designed with regularity of appearance as an important aspect, which would make it a very early example inthis region of Renaissance-influenced design; the cross-gables are not fully framed to the roof structure as is normal. The building is part of an important group including the Church of St Michael (qv) and the Dovecote (qv). (Verey D, The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire: The Cotswolds, 1979)

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DOWDESWELL LOWER DOWDESWELL SP 01 NW 5/36 Eight Gables House 23.1.52 GV II Detached house. C16, restored mid C20. Coursed squared and dressed limestone, stone slate roof, stone stacks. Rectangular plan. Symmetrical twin gables on each facade of house. Two, 3 and 4-light hollow-chamfered stone-mullioned casements to ground and first floors. All first floor windows with stopped hoods. Single lights with moulded stilted-headed surrounds towards apex of each gable. Entrance front on north with central C20 plank door with strap hinges within flat-chamfered 'Tudor'-arched surround, hood over flanking windows continued over door. Well with surround built up against north-east corner. Roof; 2 parallel gabled ridges with twin gables at right angles on north and south. Interior: fine C17 staircase with balusters and large pyramidal finials. Close-studded partition walls. (David Verey, The Buildings of England: The Cotswolds, 1979.)

Listing NGR: SP0009719882

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

129137

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Verey, D, The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire The Cotswolds, (1979)

End of official list entry

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