The Gothic Cottage

The Gothic Cottage is a detached cottage and garden feature located in Stourton with Gasper, likely built in the mid-18th century and altered in the late 18th century and in 1806 for Richard Colt Hoare. The cottage is constructed from dressed limestone and rubble stone, topped with a stone slate roof that has a half-hip on the right side and a stone stack on the left. It is a single-storey building with one window. The entrance is located at the right return and features a stone porch from 1806 with pointed arched openings, a planked door with strap hinges, and a three-light leaded casement window above.

The front of the cottage faces a lake and includes a canted stone bay with a four-light interlaced tracery window at the front and two-light windows on the sides, all with leaded lights. There is a gothic-style stone seat with ogee-arched supports and a quatrefoiled panelled back, designed by John Carter and added in 1806. An external stack is present on the left return, and there is a rear lean-to extension with a corrugated iron roof.

Inside, the cottage features two beams from a removed upper floor, an exposed four-bay collar and tie-beam roof, and an open fireplace with a plain wooden surround at the west end. The 1806 seat has ogee arches that closely resemble those on a circular monument in the nearby churchyard. Although it may have originally served as a dwelling, the cottage has functioned as a summer house since at least 1895.