TOWER HOUSE

TOWER HOUSE, OXFORD STREET

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1269271
Date first listed:: 18-Jan-1949
List Entry Name:: TOWER HOUSE
Statutory Address:: TOWER HOUSE, OXFORD STREET

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Date:: 1999-10-13
Reference:: IOE01/00304/17
Rights:: © Mr G Williams. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1269271
Date first listed:: 18-Jan-1949
List Entry Name:: TOWER HOUSE
Statutory Address 1:: TOWER HOUSE, OXFORD STREET

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: TOWER HOUSE, OXFORD STREET

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Wiltshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Malmesbury
National Grid Reference:: ST 93426 87256

Details

MALMESBURY

ST9387 OXFORD STREET 758-1/4/276 (East side) 18/01/49 Tower House

GV II*

Medieval hall with later rear wing, attached to terrace of 4 houses, with inserted tower; one house since early C19, when refronted. Late C15 hall, with a mid C16 rear wing, terrace of four C18 houses; refronted and tower added 1834. MATERIALS: hall of limestone rubble, rear wing of re-used ashlar and carved work (a feature of post-Dissolution Malmesbury) and coursed, squared limestone; tower of rubble with dressings, rubble houses; all rendered to street elevations, with a stone slate roof and 3 ridge stacks. PLAN: open hall parallel to street with an E range at S end, square tower attached within S end of terrace of single-depth houses, with a rear wing to the N end. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; 7-window range, includes 5-storey; 1-window range tower. The hall has C19 openings with a cambered arch to left-hand C19 carriage arch, 2 ground and first-floor windows, that on the first-floor to the S a trefoil in a square head; the E range to the rear has ground-floor lunettes and stable doors, the E section largely original with a blocked 4-light hollow-moulded window and E doorway with chamfered head, and C19 9-pane windows beneath the eaves. The 3 N houses have a middle 1-window range and outer 2-window ranges, that to the right with 6/6-pane sashes and a right-hand 6/9-pane sash in the former doorway, the middle one with a left-hand round-arched doorway and 8/8-pane sashes, and the N one a left-hand doorway, 8/8-pane ground-floor sash and two first-floor sashes with 6/6-panes to left and 8/8-panes to right; three gables to rear elevation. The S house was converted to a tower has a doorway and small window above; the tower has quoins and dressings to round-arched windows to the lower floors, flat-headed to the top storey, with an ashlar parapet. INTERIOR: details include a 3- former 4-bay roof to the hall with collar trusses and chamfered arch braces forming continuous arches, wind braces to the lower 2 registers, and a diagonal through ridge beam; possible former screened passage beneath the tower; the E range has collared trusses with wind braces to the middle register; houses have C19 reeded architraves with plain stops. HISTORICAL NOTE: possibly part of an extensive courtyard

complex with the S range originally stables (Stirling). Town work house from C18 to 1834, when converted to stables. The N house formerly the Salutation Inn before 1803. The tower was built for an astronomical observatory by Richard Pryor. (Stirling D: Secular medieval buildings in Malmesbury, Wilts, 1150-1547: 1986-: 8; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Wiltshire: London: 1963-: 328).

Listing NGR: ST9344587258

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 460935
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Wiltshire, (1963), 328

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.