Dower House And Avon Croft And Attached Garden Wall

A house divided into two dwellings around 1740, with origins in the 16th century and a 17th-century north wing (Avon Croft), plus an attached early 19th-century garden wall. The building combines timber-frame construction with roughcast cladding and tile roofs with brick stacks.

The main structure forms an L-plan with a parallel rear wing. The street-facing elevation is two storeys tall with a six-window range, the left half belonging to Avon Croft. A brick platt band and top cornice run across the facade.

The Avon Croft entrance features an architrave, frieze and cornice with a 20th-century panelled door beneath an overlight, flanked by windows with 12-pane sashes in architraves. Three similar windows occupy the floor above.

The Dower House entrance has a plain doorcase with frieze and cornice to a six-fielded-panel door, with side windows containing 8-pane sashes. Three ground-floor windows have 12-pane sashes in architraves, while the first floor displays three flat-roofed half-dormers with 12-pane horned sashes and two 16-pane sashes. Two cross-axial chimney stacks and a rear ridge stack serve the main section. An attached two-storey 18th-century block to the right features a gabled roof and round-headed entrance with a shell hood; a 12-pane thick-bar sash window sits above. The right return to Southern Lane has a two-storey gabled projection between gables with sashed windows and a stone cross-axial stack bearing four separate diagonal brick stacks.

The rear comprises a small two-storey gabled wing with a return lean-to, adjacent to a larger range displaying close-studding and two front gables with sashed windows and a stone cross-axial stack with three truncated diagonal shafts. A single-storey hipped-roof wing extends to the right end.

Avon Croft's rear elevation shows square timber framing in places, with a gabled stair wing featuring a return window with a 9/6-pane thick-bar sash and a similar 12-pane sash, a gabled porch to the left, mostly small-paned casements, and a small courtyard flanked by gables.

The interior of the Dower House retains rich original features. The front range's first floor is open to the roof, its smoke-blackened rafters indicating an original open hall. The return wing contains a ground-floor room with a stone fireplace and late 16th-century panelling featuring a fluted frieze and three-panel overmantel, and another room with 18th-century panelling and a late 18th-century fireplace. A dogleg staircase has simply turned balusters, a moulded handrail, and panelled newels with enriched pyramidal finials; tradition suggests this staircase was originally installed by Shakespeare in New Place and removed by Sir John Clopton upon its demolition in 1702. A first-floor room retains a stone fireplace and late 16th-century panelling.

Avon Croft contains a dogleg staircase with slender balusters and square newels, some dado panelling, and early 18th-century doors with two and six fielded panels.

The attached garden wall, dating to the early 19th century, runs approximately 40 metres along Southern Lane. Constructed in brick with round-angled pilaster strips and a modillioned cornice to offset coping, the wall features recessed gatepiers and a round-arched gateway with a studded door; a 20th-century gate occupies the right end.

The house possibly served as Stratford's manor house. It was owned by the Clopton family until 1738, when it likely began service as a dower house.