The Gables

The Gables is a house located in a row of buildings in Northleach, dating from the mid-17th century to the mid-18th century. It is constructed from small coursed squared and dressed limestone, with a stone slate roof on the front pitch and concrete tiles at the rear. The house features ashlar stacks and has a rectangular main body with a through passage that now leads into a late 17th to mid-18th century extension at right angles at the rear. There is also a small 20th-century flat-roofed extension at the back, which is not of special interest.

The building has two storeys and an attic, with a twin-gabled, three-windowed facade that is illuminated by two, three, and four-light casements with horizontal glazing bars. Almost centrally located is a 20th-century part-glazed door, with a bootscraper to the left. All openings in the facade have flat-arched heads, and there is a hood over the casement on the left-hand gable. A gable-end stack is present on the rear extension. A terra cotta animal, said to represent either a sheep or a cat, was added to the right end of the roof axis of the main body in the late 19th century.

Inside, the house features beams with deep flat chamfers and moulded stops. There is a 17th to early 18th-century plank and stud partition, which has been partly restored, on one side of the through passage. The interior also includes two stone fireplaces in the style of the 18th century, both with keystones. A large cellar is located beneath the main body of the house, which formerly had access via a stone spiral stair and contains three small stone-lined niches within its walls. The floors of the rooms above serve as the ceiling of the cellar, and there are close-studded and 18th-century panelled partitions on the first floor. Splayed surrounds are present around windows that formerly lit the now-blocked rear wall at first floor level.