Stroud Court

ST 89 NE MINCHINHAMPTON AVENING VALLEY

7/171 Stroud Court

GV II

Former large mill-owner's house, now autistic residential home; c1800 for William Playne; considerable c1830 enlargement to east. 1892 remodelling and addition of staircase hall, billiard room and conservatory. Coursed rubble and squared dressed limestone; ashlar chimneys; Welsh and asbestos slate roofs. Central 2-storey range with 3-storey end blocks. North (entrance) front: 2 balancing 3-storey blocks each with 3-window fenestration, 12-pane sashes to ground and middle floors, 6-pane to upper floor. Modillion eaves cornice to each block with blocking course. Block to right is original c1800 house with central projecting porch having Tuscan pedimented doorway with double panelled doors. Ground floor of left block is obscured by single-storey service wing behind screen wall. Central linking range together with left block are c1830, central range having off-centre hipped roofed staircase wing with 3 large sash windows having marginal glazing bars. Flat-roofed enclosed porch below. Chimneys are generally parapet mounted on end walls of each block, each with swept base and plain caps. West end: 2-window fenestration, Venetian windows to ground floor, tripartite sashes to floors above. South (garden) side: original 3-window fenestration of outer blocks disturbed by later additions, left (west) block receiving off-centre 2-storey canted bay window, single-storey billiard room addition to right block has canted mullioned and transomed bay window with Venetian windows at centre. Glazed sky-light at centre of roof. Interior: many rooms retain reeded cornices and Regency architraves, original staircase in west block having been destroyed in C20 fire. Hall in central range extensively remodelled in Jacobean revival style, possibly by F.S. Waller, large open well timber staircase having heavy newel posts with solid pyramidal finials; some linenfold panelling. Stone hall fireplace also Jacobean in style. Billiard room (date panel 'Oct 17 1892' on external wall with initials 'ATP' and 'MEP') has coved timber ceiling, stained glass to skylight. The extensive additions to this house are indicative of the success of the woollen cloth manufacturing at the nearby Longfords Mills, Stroud Court originally being named Longfords House. Dominates view from road on opposite side of valley. (N.M. Herbert, 'Minchinhampton' in V.C.H. Glos. xi, 1976, pp 184- 207; and D. Verey, Gloucestershire: The Cotswolds, 1976)

Listing NGR: ST8668899342