3, Querns Lane

3 Querns Lane, Cirencester

A warehouse of the early 19th century, now converted to retail premises and a dwelling. The building is also known as Bowly's Cheese Warehouse. The easternmost bay and the ground and first floors of the adjacent bay to its west form part of the separate property at 1 Querns Lane.

The warehouse is built of rendered coursed limestone with dressed limestone quoins and limestone stacks, under Cotswold stone slate roofs. It is single depth on plan, with a wing built onto the rear that extends from the adjacent building at 1 Querns Lane.

The warehouse comprises two storeys with an attic storey. It is constructed in two sections. To the east is a two-bay section that was formerly the domestic end of the building, now part of 1 Querns Lane except for the attic storey of the second bay from the east, which is subject to a flying freehold in favour of 3 Querns Lane. The remainder of the building is a seven-bay industrial section. The windows are multi-paned timber casements, with the eastern two bays of the attic having raking half-dormers. Both ends of the building have large dressed limestone quoins. The industrial section features taking-in doors at first floor level and a wide double doorway to the ground floor. The central bay has circular windows at first and attic floor levels. There is a substantial 20th-century extension which is not of special interest.

The interior retains exposed chamfered beams running from front to rear. The interior was not fully inspected.

The warehouse was built in the early 19th century by the local Bowly family and was used as a cheese warehouse. A map of the 1840s shows both this building and Chesterton Manor nearby. The linking building which now forms part of 1 Querns Lane was constructed in the 1850s, apparently to provide a house for the warehouse manager, incorporating the former domestic end of the early 19th-century warehouse. A gabled wing was built in the mid-19th century across the rear of the 1850s section and the domestic end of the warehouse, confirming that both sections were in the same ownership at that date.