Woodchester House

SO 8202-8302 WOODCHESTER

16/194 Woodchester House

28.6.60 II*

Large country house. Mid C18; early C19 alterations. Limestone ashlar; coursed rubble limestone; ashlar chimneys; Welsh slate roof. Three-storey; central stair hall plan. Front: 5-window fenestration; 12-pane sashes with triple keyed architraves and bracketted sills to middle floor, elaborated with eared architraves and cornices to ground floor. Plain upper floor 6-pane sashes with thick glazing bars and voussoir lintels. Central pedimented doorway with keyed entablature and rusticated Tuscan pilasters; small-paned glazed doors. Modillion parapet cornice with blocking course. South side: central 15-pane ground floor sash window with stone lintel; later segmental arched 12-pane sash to left. Two parapet-mounted chimneys with plain caps. Rear: central Venetian stair window with thick glazing bars to sashes. Various later 12 and 16-pane sashes except for early C18 casements to ground floor, possibly being part of earlier house. Single-storey outbuildings attached to north side. Interior: hall is in form of wide corridor running from front to rear, with 2 fine opposed Doric doorcases serving principal rooms, each with elaborated architraves and 8-panel fielded doors. Open well staircase has 3 turned balusters per tread with open scroll-enriched strings and wreathed handrails. Matching dado panelling. Upper floor rooms have panelled closet screens. While a property of the Wise family, mid C19 owners of Woodchester Mill, was frequently visited by A.E. Housman, finding the valley landscape an inspiration for his early poetry. (R.P. Graves, A.E. Housman: The Scholar Poet, 1979; and D. Verey, Gloucestershire: The Cotswolds, 1979.)

Listing NGR: SO8392602376