Berkeley Arms and Outbuilding

Details

TEWKESBURY

SO8932 CHURCH STREET 859-1/6/85 (South side) 04/03/52 No.8 Berkeley Arms and outbuilding (Formerly Listed as: CHURCH STREET (South side) No.8 (Berkeley Arms) including adjoining barn)

GV II*

Hotel, with attached outbuilding, probably originally a warehouse. Late C15 or early C16, with some c1600 (including warehouse) and C18 alterations. Close-studded timber-framing with mid rails and tension bracing; plaster panels, some brickwork, tile roofs, brick stacks. PLAN: a double-depth twin-gabled right-angle plan street block with central chimney breast, covering a throughway to the right, with long back wing including a jettied section into an alley, and an open warehouse with a 2-bay rear section in 2 floors, covering the alley. EXTERIOR: front block in 3 storeys with basement, 2-windowed. 4-light ovolo-mullioned casements to the gables, with a continuous run of 7+7-light casements at first floor, under the jetty, and with moulded course above and below. All these with leading. The ground floor, formerly also jettied, has been brought forward under a tiled pent roof. It has 2 square oriel display windows with a central part-glazed door under a transom-light. The oriels, on small shaped brackets, are small-paned, with a geometrical pattern, and are probably mid C18. Under the right-hand unit is a plank access hatch to the basement. To the right is a C19 plank door in surround, giving access to the throughway and an alley. On the ridge of the main roof, behind the gables, a large square brick stack. In throughway a C19 plank door with transom-light, in a square-panel framed wall, at the back of which is a heavy beam on a bracket. At the back eaves is a C20 brick stack, and there is a plain square light to a dormer to the roof space. In the alley is the heavy framed wall of the main building, with a large 18-pane window, which rises above the ceiling height of the ground floor, then a jetty above brick walling with 2 doors to transom-lights, and various casements. The rear gable of the main block is timber-framed, but faced with a C20 gable wall. The open outbuilding is separated from the alley by a 2m high brick wall; to the right is the framing of the back wall to Tudor Cottage (qv). At the beginning of the 2-storey outbuilding unit is a large brick ridge stack. The covered section of the alley has 3 transverse beams and heavy floor joists visible, and heavy corner posts with brackets. The back gable wall is mainly in C18 or earlier brickwork, but with heavy cruck-like corner posts with remains of a tie-beam. Above a collar is gable framing, and there is a bressumer above the 5-light mullioned casement at the ground floor. A small square loading opening is set centrally at first floor. INTERIOR: the upper floor and roofspace were not accessible for inspection. The basement, in 2 sections, has stone walls. The rear section, beyond the chimney breast (also in stone) has 2 deep transverse beams with stopped chamfers, and housed chamfered floor joists. Ground-floor front has a corner post with bracket to former jetty, and a transverse beam with ovolo and hollow moulds. The rear room has rebuilt fireplace in a C19 surround with a moulded post each side, carrying a transverse moulded beam with hollows and small roll-mould to flat soffit. A straight flight C19 stair at the alley wall runs to a corridor with plastered inset over the large window below. The full-width front room has 4 heavy posts, and a central transverse beam on heavy brackets, with heavy member square-panel party walls. The ceiling joists are early. The wing includes a heavy chamfered beam, and the back wall is in heavy framing, with a jetty, and faced externally with brick. The open warehouse is in 2 bays, with queen-post and collar trusses on heavy cambered tie-beams to posts with brackets. There are some heavy stone corbels in the outer walls. One-purlin roof with light wind bracing, and rafters halved at the ridge. The enclosed 2-storey section at the outer end was not inspected, but it encloses a large brick stack. SR Jones (VCH) notes that both ground and first floors were orginally lit by ranges of mullioned windows, and that rear wing has a trimmed opening for a stair ladder to the second floor. This is one of a group of important early framed buildings at the east end of Church Street, including Nos 9 & 10 (qv) adjoining, and Nos 15 & 16 (qv), all retaining important elements of original structure including a rare early example of a warehouse-type structure. (Victoria County History: Gloucestershire: London: 1968-: 128).

Listing NGR: SO8926832631

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

376665

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Gloucester, (1968), 128

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.