Atherstone Place

Atherstone Place is a house, originally part of a larger complex including numbers 13 Eastgate and 18 James Street. It now functions as the Deanery. The core of the building dates to the late 13th century, incorporating a doorway from the late 12th century. It was altered in the early 16th century, with further changes occurring in the late 17th century when a floor was inserted and the ground floor remodelled. The west gable was rebuilt and the building raised and reroofed in 1810, followed by later alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries. The construction utilises coursed squared stone and brick, with ashlar dressings, and plain tile and pantile roofs, supported by three brick gable stacks.

The exterior features a moulded eaves cornice and a rendered, coped parapet with three shouldered, round-headed gables adorned with baluster finials. The building extends over two storeys plus a basement, presented with a three-window range. The south front includes a 19th-century gabled porch sheltering a late 17th-century entrance door. To the left of the porch is a 19th-century three-light, pointed arched window, and to its right, a 13th-century two-light, pointed arched window with Y-tracery, featuring chamfered stone mullions, a transom and a hoodmould. A buttress sits to the right, followed by a 16-pane sash window at basement level and another above it. A late 12th-century round arched doorway, decorated with double shafts and zigzag motifs, and a hoodmould occupies the corner, above which are three 16-pane sashes. The rear range, spanning three storeys, exhibits coursed squared stone lower floors with quoins, two two-light casements with renewed lintels (the right one being smaller), two 16-pane sashes, and a barred and slatted wooden cross casement above. Further up, two 12-pane sashes are situated.

The interior includes a cellar with brick and stone lining, featuring two reused cambered tie beams. A remnant of a late 13th-century doorway, with chamfered jambs and an incomplete hoodmould, remains at the rear of the ground floor. The ground floor’s central entrance hall features an early 19th-century open-well staircase with two stick balusters per tread, a ramped, scrolled handrail, and turned newels. The dining room to the left contains early 16th-century wall paintings concealed by mid-20th-century panelling, a 19th-century marble fireplace, and a moulded cornice. A study on a mezzanine floor to the right showcases two cased beams, two shell niches, and a late 17th-century fireplace with a wooden surround. An adjoining rear room contains a mid-19th-century marble fireplace, cornice, and frieze, with two cupboards flanked by panelled pilasters and an 18th-century eight-panel door.

The first floor features two exposed wall posts linked by a resited bilstered lintel and an exposed purlin. Most doors consist of six fielded panels. The building’s construction and features are comprehensively documented by Jones in 1990.