Porch House

This is a pair of houses built as a single entity, located on the west side of Long Street, Tetbury. The core of the building dates to the late 16th century, with a significant addition of a porch in 1677. The construction utilises coursed rubble stone, partially lime washed, with quoins and a tall plinth, topped by a Cotswold stone slate roof. A prominent ashlar stack on the left-hand side features two diagonally set flues with moulded cornices.

The building is arranged as a single main range with a porch and a through passage, accompanied by long rear ranges set at right angles. It extends over two storeys and includes an attic, with three steep coped gables facing the street. The first floor features three four-light stone mullion windows. Each gable has a three-light stone mullion, adorned with a square hoodmould and a small, plain-glazed round window set within a square stone frame. Finials top the gables. The ground floor incorporates a four-light stone mullion to the left of the porch, a three-light window to the right, and a door to Number 42 set within a deep panelled reveal, featuring an 18th-century four-panel door and a shallow fanlight. A further four-light stone mullion is positioned on the far right. Both ground and first floors share bearing arches and a continuous dripmould.

The porch is two storeys high and has a coped gable with a finial, a two-light stone mullion with a square hoodmould, and a doorcase with a moulded stone architrave, pulvinated frieze, cornice, and the inscribed date 1677. C19 double doors, featuring trefoil-headed top panels and diagonal slatting, lead to a through passage providing access to Number 40. Behind the through passage, a late 16th-century timber-framed gallery is still visible.

The interior of Number 40 has been largely altered, although some original beams remain. Number 42 retains original features, including a deep stone lintel (approximately 2 metres long) in a ground-floor room, a plank door, a large moulded beam, part of a large stone fireplace with a moulded lintel, and remnants of a straw and plaster ceiling within a room to the right. The building is reputed to have been originally designed as a school.