Little Eslington And Coach House To Rear

Little Eslington and Coach House to Rear, Thirlestaine Road, Cheltenham

Little Eslington is the former service and nursery wing of Eslington House, a detached villa constructed circa 1830-50, and is built in a restrained classical style. The building was extended by the addition of single-storey ranges in the later twentieth century; these later additions are not of special interest.

Materials and Exterior

The original wing is faced in stucco, incised to represent ashlar and painted cream, under a slate roof; the chimney stacks have been removed. The original wing is three storeys with a basement, one bay deep and three bays wide. The windows are three-over-six or six-over-six sashes, with the exception of a single ground-floor window which has been replaced with a mid-twentieth-century metal-framed casement window in an enlarged opening. A window to each of the ground and basement floors to the west have been replaced by twentieth-century doors. The windows in the twentieth-century extensions are a mixture of timber casements and sashes, with large patio doors to the southernmost extension.

Plan and Interior

The original wing is a single-depth range on plan, adjoining the rear of Eslington House, with a central stairwell and rooms to either side. The central dog-leg stair retains moulded handrails and turned newels with plain stick balusters. Closed recesses to the landings mark the former openings between this wing and the main house. The rooms on the basement, first and second floors retain their four-panelled doors and architraves, with picture rails also retained in the ground floor rooms and first floor bedroom. Four fireplaces survive, all with cast-iron grates. One example has a grey marble surround and an Art Nouveau style grate with tile insert; two have moulded stone surrounds and one has a plain timber surround. The basement has limestone flag floors to the hall and western room; the eastern room has a stone fireplace with cast-iron grate. The original back doorway at the foot of the stair is now an opening into the twentieth-century extensions. These are set on different levels, necessitating a short flight of steps in the entrance hall rising to the kitchen. The finishes in the extensions are wholly modern but are broadly sympathetic in style to the original range.

Coach House

The Coach House is contemporary with the main house and built from brick, painted to the north elevation, under a hipped roof covered in slate. The building is two storeys with a brick plinth, pilasters to either end, and a brick string-course between the ground and first floors. The main elevation has two former carriage openings to the ground floor, now closed internally, with paired timber doors to each. To the right is a six-over-six sash window with a stone cill. The first floor has a three-over-six sash window to the left, and to the right, in an opening formerly housing a hayloft door, a six-over-six sash. To the rear, windows have been inserted to the first floor and patio doors to the left. The fenestration to the east elevation has been reordered. Internally, the coach house has been converted to residential use with a central staircase introduced and the ground and first floors partitioned. The finishes all date from the later twentieth century.

History

The area around Thirlestaine Road was largely developed in the first half of the nineteenth century. Thirlestaine Road had been laid out by 1820, but there was little development apart from the road itself at that time; most houses in the area appear for the first time on maps between 1834 and 1897. Eslington House appears stylistically to have been constructed circa 1830-40. A conveyance and mortgage between Mr Skillicorne and Richard Liddel, dated 20 May 1848, shows a plan of the house, and it is possible that the mortgage was to raise funds for its construction. It was sold by Mr Liddel in 1852 to Lieutenant General Greenstreet of the East India Company. It was sold in 1856 to Lieutenant General, later General Samuel Swinhoe, a General in HM Indian Army, who died at the house in 1866. The property continued to be occupied by members of the military into the twentieth century: Colonel John Stevenson was resident in 1893, and Colonel Robert William Ferguson Phillips in 1914. A sales brochure of 1957 showed that Eslington House was for sale by order of Dr Arthur Tom; the sale included the house, coach house and large gardens as well as sundry garages. The particulars stated that the house "lends itself admirably to division into two separate units (there being already two separate stairways)". The house was duly divided following its sale, and the local authority confirmed that the work had been carried out satisfactorily in March 1958.

The property now known as Little Eslington was formerly the service and nursery wing of Eslington House. Access to Eslington House from the landings on all three floors was blocked, but the layout of the wing was retained. The coach house became part of the holding of Little Eslington. Little Eslington was extended by the addition of single-storey ranges to the south during the mid- and late twentieth century. The coach house was converted to residential accommodation in the same period; the earlier parapet and shallow-pitched roof were removed and replaced with a hipped roof at the same time, and new windows and doors added to the previously blind rear elevation, from which a lean-to tack room was removed.