Woolgatherers And Attached Warehouse

Woolgatherers and Attached Warehouse, Coxwell Street, Cirencester

This house with attached warehouse dates from the mid to late 17th century and early 18th century. It is constructed of coursed squared limestone with ashlar dressings.

The complex comprises a main residential range facing Coxwell Street, flanked by a small wing to the left and a warehouse block to the right, which together enclose a small courtyard set back from the street front.

The main range is three storeys with an attic and originally had a five-window frontage, though this is now partially obscured by a lean-to extension to the warehouse block. The stone slate roof is hipped to the left with a stone ridge stack and two external stone stacks to the rear. The ground floor contains four 9/9-pane early 18th-century sashes in moulded stone architraves. The first floor has four windows; three in stone surrounds of probable late 17th-century date with stone mullions and transoms cut out and leaded lights, and one of early to mid-18th-century date with an eared architrave, bracketed cill, and timber casement, flanked by two possible blocked openings. The second floor has five ovolo-moulded stone mullion-and-transom windows with leaded lights, that to the far right partly blocked. The central door has two upper panels glazed and four lower panels in the form of a St Andrew's Cross, set in a moulded stone doorcase with Doric pilasters supporting a pediment. A cement render plinth rises to ground floor window cill level; moulded string courses break forward over the ground and first floors above the window architraves, and the building has a moulded timber eaves cornice.

The small wing to the left is a single storey with a cellar beneath. It features two 9/9-pane sashes in moulded stone architraves flanking a part-glazed door in a moulded stone architrave. The wing to the right has two 6/6-pane sashes in plain reveals with stone cills on the first floor and two similar windows on the ground floor, together with a small circular window to the first floor left. An open arcade supported on Doric columns occupies the ground floor to the left.

The right return elevation is the former warehouse front facing Thomas Street. This is a four-storey range of six windows flanked by two three-storey single-window ranges, all under a continuous roof. The centre range has four windows with segmental arched heads and keystones to the centre of the first floor with unmoulded stone cills and leaded lights; rectangular openings flank these, that to the right blind. The second floor has six similar square openings and the third floor has six blind openings, of which four to the centre have round heads with keystones and square openings appear to the left and right. Four 2-light timber casements in segmental arched openings with keystones occupy the ground floor, that to the far left being a broader former doorway, with a 20th-century plank door with overlight in a similar opening to the right. A pair of large boarded doors in a segmental arched opening with rusticated stone surround stands to the far right. The warehouse has a shallow plinth and band courses over the ground, first, and second floors.

The flanking wings feature Venetian windows in raised unmoulded stone surrounds with keystones to the first floor, both with two blind openings in raised unmoulded stone surrounds to the second floor and two window openings under exposed timber lintels to the ground floor. A three-storey single-window extension to the right wing has a similar blind Venetian window with a gargoyle head over it on the right return facade. The rear elevations of both warehouse and house are decorated with six similar carved heads said to derive from the Abbey.

The interior contains an early 17th-century open well oak staircase, refixed and probably from another building, with closed string, bobbin-turned balusters and newels with pierced finials and similar pendant drops. The hall and ground floor left room have early 18th-century painted timber panelling and bolection-moulded fireplaces. A similar fireplace and early 18th-century cupboard appear in the former counting-house in the single-storey wing to the left. The ceilings feature plastered beams with broad chamfers and run-out stops, mostly with a broad notch after the stop. A collar-truss roof with curved principals and tenoned purlins has been extensively repaired.