Dowdeswell Court

Dowdeswell Court is a country house built in 1833–1834 for the Rogers family by Rowland Paul of Cheltenham. The site also contains the remains of a 17th-century outbuilding.

The main house is constructed in ashlar with a slate roof and stone chimney stacks. It has a rectangular plan with a main body and wings extending forward to the right and left of the south entrance, plus a service wing projecting further to the right. The entrance front is symmetrically composed with a 2:5:2 window arrangement across two storeys, with cellars beneath the west side extending south under a terrace.

The south-facing entrance front features 8-pane sashes with marginal glazing bars and moulded, lugged architraves with keystones. The central first-floor window is a plate-glass sash with a brick keystone and triangular pediment; all other windows are 12-pane sashes with aprons. The entrance itself is a central double fielded 6-panel door within a projecting portico supported by eight fluted columns with Corinthian capitals, topped with a frieze and moulded cornice. Large Corinthian pilasters mark the corners of the projecting wings and their junctions with the main body. The parapet is finished with a moulded cornice.

The west front displays rectangular panels within moulded surrounds and grilles ventilating the cellars, set into the plinth. Late 19th-century plate-glass sashes light the ground floor; the first floor retains 12-pane sashes. Windows throughout have moulded, lugged architraves with triangular pediments over the central two windows on each floor. The north front has a small projecting 19th-century porch off-centre to the left with round-headed sash windows with marginal glazing bars; most other windows here are plate-glass sashes. Chimneys feature moulded cappings and fielded panels.

The service wing on the right has a 1:2:1 window arrangement.

The interior was substantially remodelled in 1847–1848 by Samuel Omley of Cheltenham. The hall, formerly featuring a colonnade of Corinthian columns running its length (two columns have since been removed), retains an ornate cornice. A 17th-century stone fireplace with bolection moulding, probably reused from an earlier house, survives. A stone staircase with cast iron balustrade and wreathed handrail rises from the hall. A rear room features a wooden fireplace copying the hall's design. The ballroom or dining room within the left-hand wing has an ornate cornice and marble fireplace with bolection moulding.

Stone balustrading forms two sides of a square at the entrance front, with access to a terrace via steps flanked by small piers with pointed finials on the west side. The south side has similar piers with moulded cappings, formerly topped with finials.

Beneath the south-west corner of the square is a former 17th-century outbuilding, now accessed from the terrace via a 19th or early 20th-century entrance. This structure features two tall stone-mullioned cross-windows (now blocked) on the north side with a flat-chamfered doorway between them, and two 2-light stone-mullioned windows in the south wall. A central square pier, now enclosed in concrete, stands within. The interior has stone cross vaulting and a square stone-lined trough set into the floor.

Vaulted stone cellars are also accessed from the same terrace; these contain square stone piers with imposts (possibly 17th-century) rising to brick cross vaulting, likely dating to the 19th century. Former access to the cellars from the north front is now blocked, replaced by a 2-light stone-mullioned window.

The original house was built on the site of an earlier dwelling. It was initially three storeys in height. The 17th-century outbuilding and possibly parts of the cellars derive from this earlier house.