The Dower House

House, latterly divided into 5 cottages and now restored to one house. Built circa 1825 by G.S. Repton for the spinster sisters of James Haughton Langston of Sarsden House. The building was altered in the mid-20th century and was undergoing restoration at the time of resurvey in August 1987.

The house is constructed of coursed and squared limestone rubble with stone slate roofs and stone chimneys, although some chimneys were replaced in blue engineering brick in the later 19th century but were being rebuilt in stone during the restoration. The design exemplifies the picturesque cottage orné style with a complex plan and elevations.

The main living rooms are grouped in a compact 2-storey block with gabled projections to the north-east (containing the hall), south-east (dining room, now study) and south-west (drawing room), with principal bedrooms above. From this central block, a 1½-storey L-plan section steps down the slope to the north-west, then extends north-east into a comparatively large service block terminating in one-storey annexes and a walled yard. All elevations feature casement windows with leaded lights or glazing bars. The roof has substantial overhangs at the gables and verges.

On the north-east side, a gabled projection to the right of centre contains a 3-light window to the ground floor and a 2-light window to the first floor, with cusped bargeboards. To the right is the main entrance with a boarded door and a 2-light window above to the left. A projecting chimney stack terminates in two diagonal brick shafts, partly obscured by a loggia with a lean-to roof hipped to the left. The loggia is supported on a primitive order of five irregularly-spaced timber columns with square abaci carrying a bark-covered lintel. The main roof is hipped to the right with a ridge stack of three enriched round shafts.

The south-east side displays a gabled projection to the right with a 2-storey 5-light canted bay window and cusped bargeboards. Above the lower lights is a stone-tiled canopy carried on thin curved brackets. To the left, a single-storey projection in the angle has a roof half-hipped to the left, extended as a canopy on brackets, with casement doors and an overlight beneath. Above is a gabled half-dormer with a 2-light window and scalloped bargeboards.

On the south-west side, a gabled projection to the right has cusped bargeboards. The ground floor features a circular bay window in five bays defined by rustic fluted columns carrying square abaci and a bark-covered lintel, each bay containing a 2-light casement window. A conical roof, truncated with a lead platform forming a balcony (originally with iron railing), is reached by a 3-light casement with a stone-slated canopy on brackets above. To the left, the building steps down the slope in three stages with roofs hipped to the left, the final stage of 1½ storeys having a hipped half-dormer.

The drawing room has a shallow elliptical groined vault with elliptical arched recesses on all sides. Until the mid-20th century, these recesses contained chiaroscuro murals of the muses painted on paper. The main bedrooms and passages also have plaster vaults. Some neo-classical chimney pieces and other details were introduced in the mid-20th century when a new dining room was created on the ground floor of the service range. The staircase has stick balusters to a carved open string, circular newels and a ramped handrail.

Originally known as Sarsgrove Cottage, the house was divided into five estate workers' cottages in the later 19th century and was returned to one house in the mid-20th century. Much of the interior decoration is similar to that at nearby Sarsden Glebe, also designed by Repton. Repton's drawings are held in the RIBA drawings collection (K2/14.1-3). The ground plan shading indicating 2, 1½ and 1 storey sections has led to the misconception that Repton enlarged an earlier building, though this was not the case.