County House

CHELTENHAM

SO9421NW BAYSHILL ROAD 630-1/17/191 (East side) 12/03/55 County House

GV II

Villa now offices. c1839-42 with restorations c1980s. Ashlar with hipped slate roof. PLAN: double depth, square on plan with central hallway. EXTERIOR: 2-and-a-half storeys with attics and basement, 3 first-floor windows. Basement has moulded string-course surmounted by quoins to angles; first-floor moulded sill band; moulded second-floor band; wide eaves on scroll brackets which interrupt cornice. Central Doric porch with 2 pairs of columns and pilasters, triglyphs and metopes to frieze. Flight of steps to replacement doors with overlight in tooled architrave. Ground floor has tripartite windows: 6/6 between 2/2 sashes with sills and cornices on consoles; first floor has 6/6 sashes throughout; all in tooled architraves. Second floor has small casement windows. Attic dormers have 3 pedimented dormers with 3/3 sashes. Left return has 6/6 sashes to ground floor and basement in tooled architraves, those to ground floor have sills and cornices on consoles. INTERIOR: includes: central hallway, open-well staircase with ornate iron balustrade and wreathed handrail. Embellished cornices to ground floor. HISTORICAL NOTE: The Bayshill Estate was developed by a joint stock company who purchased the land from the Skillicorne family in 1837. By 1843 Henry Davies, in his Guide to Cheltenham, described, a number of detached villas .. several of which are occupied by resident families of affluence and station, and others are in an unfinished state'. Little considers this part of,a superb group (of villas) that make Bayshill Road one of the great roads for architecture in all England'. A Classical villa which with its low hipped roof and bracketed eaves exhibits some of the Italianate style characteristic of many mid C19 villas. (Little B: Cheltenham: London: 1952-: 76; Hart G: A History of Cheltenham: Stroud: 1965-1990: 172-3).

Listing NGR: SO9435021911