Details
TETBURY
386/0/10014 NEW CHURCH STREET & WEST STREET
12-JUL-07 STONE WALL
II
A freestone boundary wall, c.135m long and c.5m high, partially set on geological outcrops of limestone, C17 or C18 with some later rebuilding.
MATERIALS: local limestone rubble with much of the lower, retaining courses lime mortared; parts of the wall contain roughly squared stone set in mortared courses, positioned fairly randomly among the coursed freestone. The stretch behind nos. 40 - 44 Close Gardens retains its slightly overhanging coping stones, with the remainder topped with a rounded mortar cap.
EXTERIOR: The wall is retaining below a height of about two to three metres as the external ground level falls away towards the south and west of the site; its overall height is around five metres at the highest point. The wall sweeps around the corner between West Street and The Knapp, at the head of Cutwell. It marks the boundary of the former grounds of The Close.
HISTORY: The wall marks the western and southern boundaries of the former grounds of The Close, the foremost residence of the town, fronting on to Long Street, which lies to the north. The Close dates in part from the C16, though the current gabled building, listed at Grade II, dates largely from the C17. In 1594, when described as newly built, it was owned by the Estcourt family, who lived at nearby Shipton Moyne; the house passed through the marriage of the daughter of the family, Mary, to Francis Savage, and remained in the Savage family until 1850. In the later C19, The Close was owned by a local solicitor, Josiah Tippets Paul, and then inhabited until the mid 1960s as a family residence by several private owners. The last of these, Major Morrison-Bell, sold it to Wg. Cdr. Pink, who turned The Close into an hotel. In 1962, Major Morrison-Bell sold the majority of the Close Gardens for development; a new library for the town was constructed near the house, and a small estate of bungalows and a few houses was built on the remainder, filling the space up to the wall, which became the rear boundary wall for numbers 38-44 Close Gardens. A part of the wall to the rear of 38 and 39 Close Gardens, on New Church Street to the west, collapsed in the 1990s and was repaired; during this rebuilding, a coin of 1799 was discovered in this part of the wall, giving a possible date for its construction or an earlier repair.
SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: The stone wall running long New Church Street and around the corner into West Street is a good survival of a substantial, skilfully built and relatively early boundary and garden wall associated with a significant house, The Close. The house dates from the late C16, and this wall represents around ninety per cent of the length of its original boundary wall. The quality of the craftsmanship and materials is good, and the length and height of the wall - c.135m long and up to 5m high - together with its technically accomplished, long sweeping curve, make it an impressive survival. Despite some later repairs, which are inevitable in a structure of this type, the wall is largely intact, and has good townscape value to add to its intrinsic interest.
