Cross House

Details

TEWKESBURY

SO8932 CHURCH STREET 859-1/6/155 (North side) 04/03/52 Nos.107 AND 108 Cross House (Formerly Listed as: CHURCH STREET (North side) Cross House)

GV II*

Large house, formerly two, now (Jan 1992) surgery and flat, with 2 shops, at end of row on corner with Tolzey Lane. Early C16, but a third storey added in C17, and all extensively restored c1865 by Thomas Collins, the builder/restorer, who used it as his own residence. A photograph of 1932 (Ross) shows the building still without the shop fronts, which, however, look like late C19 designs. Close-studded timber-framing with rails, plaster panels, tile roofs, brick stacks. PLAN: a broad parallel-plan street front with 2 lower front gables to steeply-pitched transverse roof to high end gables has a long 3-gabled return following the curve of Tolzey Lane, to the right. The front is jettied at first and second floors, and the return is jettied at the first floor. A broad lobby, to the left, leads by an offset passage to a very large stair hall, with central passageway, and the main first and second-floor parlours on the front corner, with fireplace on the rear wall. 2 shops at the ground floor, and a flat in the attic storey. The remainder (January 1992) is dentists' offices. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, basement and attic; the 2 gables are not identically treated, reflecting the former division into 2 properties. The left half has a 2-light casement in moulded architrave, above a 1:4:1-light canted oriel with transom under a hipped tiled roof. Below the jetty is a further oriel, without transom, above the C19 decorative panelled door under a 4-centred timber head. This is set to a stone plinth course. The right gable has a 3-light casement above a 1:5:1-light canted oriel with transom under hipped tiled roof. Below the jetty is a similar canted oriel, flanked by small 2-light casements above the transom, giving a continuous band of windows at this level. These C17 windows are all leaded, and have ovolo-moulded members. Across two-thirds of the width of the ground floor is a double shop front with deep recessed doors under a blind box with moulded cornice and deep fascia, all to pilasters and console brackets. In the framing the studs and rails are edge-moulded, the bressummer face to the second-floor jetty is moulded, and a moulded band runs across each gable above the windows. The elevation to Tolzey Lane has timbers recently renovated or replaced. It has a jetty at first-floor level, on carved brackets to the left-hand end, and 3 wide gables. There are various 3- and 4-light casements, some with transom, 2 slight square oriels, and 6- and 7-light bays. At the right-hand end is a door under a narrow transom light. At the left-hand end, ground floor, is one panel of brickwork, on a stone plinth. The back has a wide flat-roofed dormer above the brick wall of the adjacent demolished premises. There are 2 large brick stacks to the gables of the front block, and one gable has a 2-light casement to the attic above another below. INTERIOR: attic storey not accessible for inspection. The shop to the right has 2 very large chamfered transverse beams, with exposed joists, and to the left 2 large moulded beams to a central beam, and large moulded joists, as in the adjacent lobby. The cellar has a central pier in squared dressed stone, and some stonework in the outer walls. To No.107 the ceiling is in concrete on steel, and to No.108 timber on a heavy chamfered beam. In a rear compartment, adjacent to Tolzey Lane, is a half-cylindrical recess in stonework, possibly to a former well, and there is some brick vaulting on cast-iron beams. The wide lobby to the main premises is flanked by 4 bays of linenfold panelling to dado height, with a top rail with stopped chamfers and sunk panel, with moulded posts to lintels with flat ogee carving and figures of various animals and dragons. The panels are plastered. There are moulded beams on flat arch braces, and a fourth double-wave moulded beam, carrying broad joists with roll-mould edges. There is a large mullioned and transomd internal glazed light in the return arm, with a heavy beam, carried on a chamfered post but cut off at mid span, leading to the lowest flight of the wide Thomas Collins staircase. This rises to quarter landings in a very large open hall or well, with moulded solid strings, handrail, square newels with ball finials, and turned balusters. The balustrade returns at landings. The upper flight, set further in than the lower, has a balustraded gallery on concave plastered support overlooking the whole, with a 9-panel glazed laylight. 2 large mullioned casements light the hall from the S part wall. The front parlour, first floor, has complete C17 panelling, with enriched pilasters, and a continuous frieze with winged angels' heads, and a richly carved Jacobean fireplace incorporating 3 deep arched niches. There are 2 heavy chamfered transverse beams. The central waiting room also has C17 panelling and an Ionic pilaster fireplace. A toilet compartment has some linenfold panelling. Doors are mainly C19 panelled, in cable-mould architraves. At second floor the main parlour has C18 dado panelling, and the fireplace wall has C17 panelling, and an C18 fireplace with an overmantel area of decorative C17 plaster with fleur-de-lis and a coat of arms, in geometrical panels with raised mouldings. Thomas Collins, the one-time owner and working stone-mason, has been referred to as "... the first important conservator..." in Tewkesbury (VCH), and was engaged in many important works in the town from 1860 onwards - before the major turmoil raised by the 1870's proposals to restore the Abbey. There is no doubt that he saved many important structures from loss through decay or demolition. His work at Cross House was substantial, and it is difficult to see what the original layout may have been; as much as possible of the early work was clearly retained, but it is not clear whether, for instance, the detail of the main lobby is as originally located or not. Collins is commemorated in a prominent memorial in the S transept of the Abbey (qv). His building firm, later Collins and Godfrey, disappeared in 1970. (Ross K: The Book of Tewkesbury: London: 1986-: 120; Jones A: Tewkesbury: London: 1987-; Victoria County History: Gloucestershire: London: 1968-: 150).

Listing NGR: SO8926432698

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

376734

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Jones, A, Tewkesbury, (1987)
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Gloucester, (1968), 150
Ross, K, The Book of Tewkesbury, (1986), 120

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