Abbey Lawn Cottages

Details

TEWKESBURY

SO8932 CHURCH STREET 859-1/6/106 (South side) 04/03/52 Nos.41-48 (Consecutive) Abbey Lawn Cottages

GV I

Terrace of town houses. C15 or early C16, restored 1967 seq. Braced box timber-framing, tile roofs. Part of a very long row of late medieval cottages, previously extending from No.34 to No.51. Narrow 1-room frontage, jettied to Church Street, with various gables or swept-down extensions to rear. 2 storeys and attics, 8 bays. No.41, the John Moore Museum, is set gable to street, in 2 jettied storeys, remainder eaves to street. All 1-windowed. First-floor windows are small 2-light wood-mullioned with casements, but with shutters to No.45; at ground floor plate-glass display windows to No.41, shutters to No.45, and, flanked by vertical painted boarding, 2-light wood mullion and transom casements to remainder. All above 2 panels, plastered, on cill. To left of each unit a plank door under cusped flat ogee head, and with bracket to jetty. Big swept down rear slope contains series of 2-light dormers in 2 ranges, under long raking tiled roofs. INTERIOR: No.41 has 2-bay roof, 1-purlin, wind-braced; collar and tie truss to clasped purlin. Heavy chamfered and stopped spine beams, braced panel walls, all heavily restored, but characteristic of the refurbishment. No.45 is called Merchant's House, generally open to the public, has small partitioned front room, then lofty open hall with hearth, to smoke-blackened "hood" within roof slope. Stair with winders to foot, solid treads, some of those at top appear original. An open 3-light casement to stair, into lean-to with 4-light shuttered casement, and rear access door. Main front wall has wooden shop shutters. All reconstructed to suggest original layout of the cottages, with shop to front of heated hall which provided access to an upper chamber. Part of a terrace of houses built as a speculative development for the Abbey (qv). A rumoured threat to the property in the 1930s led to their being acquired by the Abbey Lawn Trustees. The frontages and interiors had been much modified, and this was scarcely recognisable as a coherent terrace. In 1965 the Trustees applied for permission to demolish, but an inspection on 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 condition can be inspected in No.45. John Moore was a local author who, in 'Portrait of Elmbury' (1947), vividly described the social life of Tewkesbury in the immediate pre- and post-war period; the museum relates to country life in the area.

Listing NGR: SO8908032535

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