Numbers 8 And 8A And Attached Wall And Outbuilding To College Yard

Numbers 8 and 8A and attached wall and outbuilding to College Yard, Gloucester

A house and associated buildings formerly assigned to the Prebendary of the First Stall of Gloucester Cathedral, now apartments. The complex comprises a main house facing College Green, a rear wing, and outbuildings facing College Yard.

The main structure dates from the 15th century but has undergone substantial alteration over the centuries. The front elevation was refaced in the mid-18th century, with major additions made in the early 19th century and extensive alterations and refitting in the late 19th century. Construction is principally brick with some timber framing; the rear wing and outbuilding facing College Yard are timber-framed with a rubblestone rear wall to the outbuilding. The roof is slate with brick chimney stacks.

The plan comprises a double-depth range facing College Green with a large bow added at its western end, and a rear wing to the left. The former wing of the house to the right, now Nos 1, 2 and 3 College Yard, is a 15th-century structure featuring on its west front a projecting structure of around 1900 (part of No.1) and a 16th-century outbuilding at the south end.

The exterior presents two storeys over a cellar. The mid-18th-century front of three bays features a raised brick band at first-floor level. To its right stands the projecting semicircular bow, originally single storey and added in the early 19th century but heightened to two storeys in the late 19th century. Both the front of the range and the bow are finished with a moulded timber dentil eaves cornice. The entrance doorway is positioned in the third bay from the left, set within a doorframe with moulded architraves and an entablature featuring a pulvinated frieze and pediment. To the left of the doorway are two sashes with flush frames and glazing bars (3 by 4 panes) in openings with rubbed brick segmental-arched heads. The first floor features three similar sashes in openings with flat-arched heads, the two sashes to the left fitted with decorative cast-iron window guards. The ground floor of the bow contains three sashes with glazing bars (3 by 4 panes) in openings with flat-arched heads, each of four stone voussoirs with a raised keystone. Five tall late 19th-century first-floor windows in the bow each have a short upper sash frame with lead light glazing.

The mid-18th-century right-hand (west) wing probably incorporates an earlier structure and elements of No.3 College Yard. Its north gable end features a raised brick band at first-floor level, a doorway to the right and two sashes to the left with glazing bars (4 by 3 panes). The first floor has two similar sashes, and the gable contains a three-light casement. This block is clearly secondary to the 15th-century wing which extends at right angles to the rear (south).

The 15th-century wing, incorporating all of Nos.1 and 2, is a long timber-framed range with a moulded fascia to the jetty featuring Perpendicular shafts to ground-floor bay divisions. The fenestration is a mixture of 19th and 20th-century work, including glazing bar sashes toward the north end. Much of this west-facing front has been obscured by later additions, notably a partly-roughcast range of around 1900 to the centre, which adjoins a mid-20th-century addition positioned between this range and the outbuilding extending westwards to meet the boundary of Three Cocks Lane. The outbuilding has been partly rebuilt in 19th-century brick but retains a timber-framed south gable and some elements of original framing.

The interior of No.8 was not inspected. In No.8A, mostly late 19th-century joinery is present, with especially elaborate details in the double-depth drawing room on the first floor; a 18th-century fireplace surround was noted in the rear part of this room. Nos 1, 2 and 3 College Yard were not inspected but are likely to have retained 15th-century features. The outbuilding retains chamfered beams and an original trenched-purlin roof.

An 18th-century brick wall extends north from the outbuilding along Three Cocks Lane to meet the range to the rear of No.9.