8, Gloucester Street

MALMESBURY

ST9387 GLOUCESTER STREET 758-1/4/117 (South side) 18/01/49 No.8 (Formerly Listed as: GLOUCESTER STREET No.8 The White Lion)

GV II*

Inn, now house. C15, refronted and altered C18/19. Limestone rubble with ashlar inclusions and quoins, roughcast facade; 2 lateral brick stacks and a rear ridge stack with a stone slate roof with gableted rear wing and lower front eaves than left-hand return. PLAN: formerly courtyard plan, W range demolished mid C19. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, rear range with attic; 2-window range to street. A right-hand C20 doorway with a recessed 6/6-pane sash to the left and 8/8-pane sash above, with paired 6/6-pane sashes to the left in exposed frames. Rear E range of rubble with irregular quoins and random ashlar inclusions; the W elevation has a buttress marking the extent of the original range, with a 3-light early C18 casement with mullions; mid C18 window with timber lintel, first-floor glass with scratched inscription, C15 doorway with oak lintel and remains of 2 circular bread ovens adjacent to buttress. INTERIOR: not inspected, but reported as having a reconstructed C15 smoke-blackened collar trusses, a rear ground-floor stone fireplace with moulded surround, and chamfered bressumer with tongue stops; first-floor formerly single open room with ornate plasterwork. HISTORICAL NOTE: possibly built by the Abbey as a hospitium, with a first-floor dormitory, a right-hand through-carriageway beneath an overhanging passage and service buildings to the S and W. Gloucester Cottage, Oliver's Lane (qv), to the rear of No.10 Gloucester Street, (No.10 itself not of special interest) are possibly the former SW range of the inn. First recorded as an inn in 1618, and closed 1955. (Stirling D: Secular medieval buildings in Malmesbury, Wilts, 1150-1547: 1986-: 20; Victoria County History of Wiltshire).

Listing NGR: ST9327687199