Summary
A shop and apartment above, comprising two bays dating from the C15 and an C18 bay to the north.
Reasons for Designation
10 Church Street in Tewkesbury, a shop and apartment above, comprising of two bays dating from the C15 and an C18 bay to the north, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* for the survival of the legible remains of two independent C15 ranges whose construction and form provide evidence of the plots earlier layout and function.
* as an example of an C18 re-building of part of an earlier building, evidencing the changing architectural styles and needs of this period.
Historic interest:
* as a notable example of the early buildings that survive along Church Street and a testament to the street’s importance during the medieval period.
History
10 Church Street is located on the main thoroughfare through Tewkesbury, which was an important route during the medieval period, connecting the marketplace to the Abbey precinct. The layout of the street generally followed the typical pattern of burgage plots with narrow side passages which later became public alleys and private courts, as is the case with 10 Church Street.
Fabric analysis and dendrochronology suggest that the current building consists of three parts: a front range to the north fronting Church Street, which is an C18 re-building of part of a C15 range, the rest of which survives as the second range behind. The third range is part of a truncated C15 building that would originally have continued further to the south. On the site of its southern part is now a late C20 single-storey extension. No documentary evidence survives of the earliest buildings on the site. The first depiction of the plot is on a map in William Dyde’s book entitled ‘The History and Antiquities of Tewkesbury’ (published in 1798) which schematically shows a building with a long, narrow footprint on the plot of 10 Church Street.
The earliest surviving element of the site is the truncated south range, now the third range of the building. This range has been dendrochronologically dated with a felling date of 1467. Its precise appearance and plan are unknown; however, empty mortices for wind-braces and girding beams on the south elevation indicate that the building originally extended at least one bay further south and the small size of the knee braces in the south truss at second-floor level suggests it was always storeyed. Evidence of the original frame arrangement suggests that this bay was likely open and contiguous with the one originally to its south.
The second range was part of a separate building that originally extended north to front Church Street. It has been dendrochronologically dated to between 1453 and 1478 but the fabric evidence suggests that it was built towards the end of this date range and independently but shortly after the third range to the south. The surviving floor and ceilings provide evidence that this range was always storeyed. The style of the decorative ceiling at first floor is consistent with a C15 date and appears to have originally continued further north. The lack of stair trimmers in the surviving section would suggest that the staircase for this building would have been in the now lost front portion.
The front range, facing Church Street, is an C18 replacement of the demolished north bays of the truncated C15 building, now the second range. It is likely that James Pynock, a banker and grocer who occupied 10 Church Street between 1775 and 1803, was responsible for this change. A late C19 plan shows this bay then had a shop to the north that was heated by a fireplace to the east, a side entrance to the west and a staircase in the south-east corner which gave access to all three floors. From this point on the building is understood to have functioned as one entity, if not before.
The cellar, which sits under the first and second ranges, is presumed to date from the C16 or C17 and may have been enlarged from a smaller earlier cellar. It is not easily dateable but dates probably from before a stack was inserted at the north end of the remaining part of the second range. The ‘chamfered and rebated stone door jamb with hinges’ mentioned in the previous list entry is no longer visible or obvious but would suggest a medieval date. The large brick chimney stack can be dated to the C17 by its bricks, it was originally inserted in what was then the southern bay of the front building but is now the north end of the second range.
The first documentary evidence relating to 10 Church Street dates to the ownership and occupation by Pynock in the late C18. Following his death, the building was sold at auction and the advertisement in The Gloucester Journal in 1803 for this sale describes the building as consisting of ‘a good Shop, with a small Counting-house fronting the street, a comfortable Back Parlour; Six commodious Bedchambers, with Closets; and in the attic story are several convenient Rooms, one of which is very spacious and has been used for a Store-room, wherein are proper requisites for a Crane. There are also very extensive underground Arched Cellars, a good Kitchen, Back, Kitchen, and Pump-House, with a Laundry, Warehouse and Lodging-room over the same, newly built; together with a small Garden, Two-stalled stable’.
The Ordnance Survey’s Town Plan of Tewkesbury, surveyed in 1883 and published in 1885, shows 10 Church Street with the main building fronting onto the street, a short range to the rear and a large garden. Other than the later southern extension this remains largely as seen today (2024). In the rear part of the burgage plot was an independent small structure, probably the stable. During the latter part of the C19 and the earlier decades of the C20 the property was occupied by the draper SC Rossiter and then the grocer William H Alder. A late C19 photograph by Henry Taunt shows the surviving shopfront in situ, suggesting that it may have been installed by Mr Rossiter or Mr Alder before the turn of the century. This fits with its typical Victorian or Edwardian style. An advertisement dated 1903 for Alder’s grocery shop depicts the shopfront with a deep lobby with the letters ‘ALDER’ in the cresting above the fascia. Photographic evidence shows that this cresting had been removed by 1957. Thomas Collins (1819 – 1900) acquired the building in 1897 and a plan from this sale shows the internal subdivision of the ground floor and that there were three doors into the house from Packer’s Court to the west. Collins was a local builder and church restorer who restored several notable timber-framed buildings in Tewkesbury and was also the contractor for Sir George Gilbert Scott’s restoration of Tewkesbury Abbey (1874-1910).
An aerial photograph from 1928 shows the building with a hipped roof to the front-range of the house, a chimney stack between the first and second ranges and another stack at the north end of the third range. Behind the building was a short, one-storey extension with a pitched roof. The previous list description makes reference to this chimney stack at the north end of the third range but it no longer exists. On the ground floor it was described as ‘a large central chimney breast, with an C18 fire surround to the rear part, with fluted frieze with dentils’. Aerial photographs suggest that it was removed between 1966 and 1983.
A plan from between 1939 and 1952, when Thomas Leonard Crow leased the building, provides more information about the internal plan form at this time. This plan shows the C18 front range subdivided into shop, study, storage space and corridor. None of these partitions survive today (2024); they appear to have been removed in the second half of the C20. The stair, introduced by Pynock, was located in a separate hallway next to the shop. Opposite the stair was a hallway leading to the northernmost external door into Packers Court. The second range had a study to the west and a small storage space to the east, separated by a passageway. The third range to the south had a kitchen to the west and the cellar stairs and another stair to the east. The south extension was used as a store and had external access from Packers Court. A sketch used by Crow for advertising purposes in 1947 shows the second-floor room in the third range of the building with a ceiling below the collar and a brick chimneybreast (since removed).
To the west of the property is a passageway, once called Packer’s Court. It is known that the door to the street was used by both 10 and 11 Church Street until at least 1958, when sales particulars for 10 Church Street include a right of way. At some point after this date the street entrance to the private court was incorporated into 11 Church Street but the passageway remains accessible from the rear.
Minor changes are known to have taken place in the latter half of the C20. A photograph taken by Stanley Jones as part of his work for the Victoria County History volume on Tewkesbury in about 1966-1968 shows the south elevation without render and with a metal-framed second-floor window. A single-storey C19 extension is shown with a pitched roof and two chimneystacks against the wall with Lilley’s Alley to the east. By 1983 the current projecting oriel window had been installed at first-floor level in the rear (southern) elevation and the roof of the single-storey extension had been changed from pitched to a flat roof. In 1998 consent was granted for the replacement of the C19 extension with a larger, flat roofed one and in 2008 consent was granted for reinstatement of ventilation grilles in the shopfront’s stallrisers.
Details
A shop and apartment above, comprising two bays dating from the C15 and an C18 bay to the north.
MATERIALS: the front range is rendered ashlar limestone and brick, with two timber-framed ranges behind, timber-nogging, tiled roof and red brick stacks.
PLAN: the building fronts onto Church Street and runs south as a linear arrangement of three connected ranges with a single-storey extension to the rear.
EXTERIOR: the principal elevation, facing Church Street, is of two bays over three storeys with stepped cornice and parapet. The ground floor has a late C19 shopfront with narrow pilasters, moulded cornice and shallow fascia. A plain stallriser and thin cast-iron columns support symmetrical plate-glass windows and transom lights each side of a central recessed entrance lobby with glazed door and square fanlight. At first and second floor are two sash windows. The first-floor windows have plate glass and no horns, those on the second floor are two-over-two sashes with horns.
The east and west elevations of the front range abut the neighbouring building; the two ranges behind are visible from Lilley’s Alley and Packer’s Court. The second range retains close studding on the second floor of the east elevation; the framing of the lower floors has been rebuilt. The west elevation is of painted brick with a nine-pane fixed window at ground-floor level under a flat brick arch and three-light casements at first and second floor. The third range has box framing with later brick infill to the east and painted brick to the west with a three-light casement window on the first floor and a two-light casement window on the second floor.
The rear elevation of the third range is of three storeys. The ground-floor projects forward due to the single storey extension and is of painted brick with a three-light multipaned window. The first and second floors are of painted brick with exposed timber-framed jowled posts supporting the gable (formerly an internal truss of principal rafters, tie beam and collar beam). At first floor is a canted oriel window and at second floor a four-light multi-paned window.
INTERIOR: the ground floor of the C18 front range is open as one commercial space with panelling of varying dates and styles which is ex situ. A stair bulkhead protrudes into the space from the east wall and a step flanked by a post provides access to a modern shoulder-arched doorway leading into the second range.
The second range has a full-width room on the ground floor with three axial beams which are probably ex situ; the two westernmost are chamfered with scroll stops to the south but not the north, the easternmost has ogee and crenelated mouldings with the ogee mouldings cut off part way along its length and empty peg holes. To the south is a central doorway leading to the third range, with a protruding stair bulkhead above.
The third range at ground-floor level has been subdivided by a modern glazed partition to create a small room to the west. To the east is a C20 open-well staircase with plain balusters and newel post. To the south is a central doorway into the extension with a modern cusped timber screen to the east.
Beyond is the late C20 extension comprising a showroom space with exposed ceiling beams and joists.
At first-floor the stair lands in the third range into a hallway open to the canted oriel window to the south and partly partitioned to create a small toilet and utility room with a modern Tudor arch doorway. To the north a central doorway leads to a kitchen and dining space that spans the width of the building. This room has a decorative ceiling of moulded timbers, with hollow-chamfered joists and a moulded axial beam with hollow mouldings either side of a quarter round moulding, all interspersed with fillets. To the south is a stud wall and to the north is a blocked chimney breast and central doorway leading into the C18 stairwell.
The landing of the C18 stairwell has been divided by a part-glazed partition to create a small room to the west. The partition includes a fanlight above its door with glazing bars in the form of a round arch within which are glazing bars forming two pointed arches and one ogee arch. An C18 closed-string staircase with stick balusters, Doric newel posts and a ramped handrail (now blocked at ground floor) is located to the east. A section of large coving to the south is presumed to encase the truncated floor joists of the second floor (the ceiling beams of the first floor). A central doorway in the northern wall leads into the living room fronting Church Street. This room has simple moulded cornices and a central chimney breast to the east with a reproduction C18 fire surround.
The staircase leads up to the second floor of the front range and a narrow landing with bathroom to the west. The southern wall of the bathroom has the exposed timber-frame of the northern wall of the second range with curved braces and taper burn marks visible. A door to the north leads into a bedroom fronting onto Church Street. This room is full width with plain cornices and a blocked chimney breast to the east with cupboards built into its recesses. To the south of the landing a doorway provides access to the second range. A change of level is negotiated by two steps.
The second range has been sub-divided into two bedrooms, the first accessed directly from the landing and the other through a door in a partition to the west. The partition is on the line of the C15 axial ceiling beam. All walls have exposed timber framing, including the partition. In the east room the junction between the two adjacent frames of the second and third ranges can be seen in the south-east corner. A central doorway in the east bedroom in the second range leads into the third range.
The third range is a full-width room open to the roof with exposed timber framing to all walls. A change of level between the second and third ranges is navigated by two steps. The roof structure includes a closed queen post truss to the north; that to the south has been partly rebuilt in brick but retains a cambered tiebeam. There is a single row of purlins and a single tier of curved wind braces. To the west is what might be a blocked-up timber window.
The roof of the second range has two surviving trusses, both with raking queen struts rising to the collar. The northern truss has been altered as part of the reconstruction of the front of the range, but the tie beam is still in situ and there is evidence that the truss was originally closed at roof level. The southern truss is open and has a slightly irregular arrangement designed to accommodate the projecting purlins of the pre-existing roof of the third range to the south. Between the two surviving trusses of the second range the original roof largely survives, including the wall plates running along the external walls, the rafters and purlins. The rafters are coupled, without a ridge piece.
The house has a cellar under the first and second ranges. The walls of the northern portion are of stone with much brick patching. The stack has a base of stone to the north side and brick-facing to the south.
