Gate House

This is an early 17th-century timber-frame house with 19th-century additions, located on Widemarch Street in Hereford. The building was formerly known as No.131A Widemarch Street and as the Farmer’s Club.

The exterior is a mix of materials. The upper floors are timber-framed and plastered, with close-studding featuring painted initials "CR, IR" and decorative crowns at the gables. The ground floor is faced with ashlar. The roof is covered in slate and has a brick end stack to the left. The front of the house has three storeys and a cellar, with a four-window front. The windows are mainly 1/1 sash windows in moulded surrounds, situated under a moulded bressumer with pendants and brackets. The twin gables have 2/2 casements with arch braces and moulded bargeboards, also with pendants. A blocked doorway in the centre left window is topped with a flat hood on console brackets, which are enriched with figures. A wing to the left has a 20th-century entrance recessed within a moulded sandstone surround. The rear elevation features four gables and a central brick stack. The second floor has a moulded bressumer. A jettied second storey projects from the left returned side, supported by a moulded bressumer with carved brackets. There is a 20th-century leaded casement under moulded bargeboards. The ground floor has a leaded casement under an oak lintel, with a studded plank door to the left, featuring wrought-iron hinges.

Inside, there is a dogleg staircase with turned balusters. The front left room has moulded, ogee-stop chamfered ceiling beams, a frame beam with a dragon beam and a carved bracket. There is a mix of 17th-century carved panelling and 18th-century panelling, along with a moulded stone fireplace with a carved overmantel. An inscription on the lintel reads: “When ye sytle by yr fyre to keepe yrselves warme, take heede leaste yr tongues doe yr nayboure noe harme”. The front right room features panelling (some relocated in the 19th century) and moulded ceiling beams with ogee-stopped chamfers. The plaster is inscribed and painted with flowers. The rear of the building has a visibly chamfered bracket on the bressumer. The first floor to the right features moulded ceiling beams and moulded plaster ceilings with cornices decorated with roundels of apples, hops, and barley. There is also a moulded stone fireplace. The ballroom has moulded ceiling beams and reused panelling over the bar. A stone doorhead on the ground floor is carved with the date 1621. A plaque marks the building’s reconstruction in 1958. The building is associated with the artist David Cox, who taught painting there.