Tower House

MALMESBURY

ST9387 OXFORD STREET 758-1/4/276 (East side) 18/01/49 Tower House

GV II*

Medieval hall with later rear wing, attached to terrace of 4 houses, with inserted tower; one house since early C19, when refronted. Late C15 hall, with a mid C16 rear wing, terrace of four C18 houses; refronted and tower added 1834. MATERIALS: hall of limestone rubble, rear wing of re-used ashlar and carved work (a feature of post-Dissolution Malmesbury) and coursed, squared limestone; tower of rubble with dressings, rubble houses; all rendered to street elevations, with a stone slate roof and 3 ridge stacks. PLAN: open hall parallel to street with an E range at S end, square tower attached within S end of terrace of single-depth houses, with a rear wing to the N end. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; 7-window range, includes 5-storey; 1-window range tower. The hall has C19 openings with a cambered arch to left-hand C19 carriage arch, 2 ground and first-floor windows, that on the first-floor to the S a trefoil in a square head; the E range to the rear has ground-floor lunettes and stable doors, the E section largely original with a blocked 4-light hollow-moulded window and E doorway with chamfered head, and C19 9-pane windows beneath the eaves. The 3 N houses have a middle 1-window range and outer 2-window ranges, that to the right with 6/6-pane sashes and a right-hand 6/9-pane sash in the former doorway, the middle one with a left-hand round-arched doorway and 8/8-pane sashes, and the N one a left-hand doorway, 8/8-pane ground-floor sash and two first-floor sashes with 6/6-panes to left and 8/8-panes to right; three gables to rear elevation. The S house was converted to a tower has a doorway and small window above; the tower has quoins and dressings to round-arched windows to the lower floors, flat-headed to the top storey, with an ashlar parapet. INTERIOR: details include a 3- former 4-bay roof to the hall with collar trusses and chamfered arch braces forming continuous arches, wind braces to the lower 2 registers, and a diagonal through ridge beam; possible former screened passage beneath the tower; the E range has collared trusses with wind braces to the middle register; houses have C19 reeded architraves with plain stops. HISTORICAL NOTE: possibly part of an extensive courtyard

complex with the S range originally stables (Stirling). Town work house from C18 to 1834, when converted to stables. The N house formerly the Salutation Inn before 1803. The tower was built for an astronomical observatory by Richard Pryor. (Stirling D: Secular medieval buildings in Malmesbury, Wilts, 1150-1547: 1986-: 8; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Wiltshire: London: 1963-: 328).

Listing NGR: ST9344587258