St Peter'S Grange With Gateways And Courtyard Walls To East And West

St. Peter's Grange is a large country house, now a monastic retreat, set on a hillside beneath Cranham beech woods with commanding views over Gloucester. The building has a complex architectural history spanning from the mid-15th century to the 20th century.

The core of the present structure dates to the mid-to-late 15th century, enlarged in the early 16th century with subsequent additions in the early 17th century, late 18th century, around 1870, around 1880, and 1954. It is built of coursed and squared limestone with ashlar chimneys and a stone slate roof. The house comprises a central range with long cross-wings extending to north and south, a long south-east wing, a chapel at the north-east corner, and extends two storeys with attic accommodation. A cellar underlies the north wing.

The west front features a central range with two roll-moulded parapet gables topped by finials. All fenestration is leaded except for sashes and some later alterations. A central two-storey early 17th-century porch has a Tudor-arched doorway with a three-light pointed-arched mullioned casement above and a crenellated parapet. To the left is an 18th-century round-arched sash window with a keyed moulded architrave and a matching sash on the upper floor. The right fenestration comprises pointed-arched mullioned casements—two two-light windows to the ground floor with two three-light windows above, both gables featuring three-light attic casements with hoodmoulds. Two ridge-mounted chimneys have diagonal shafts with moulded caps. A 15th-century wing projects to the right with an upper-floor off-centre canted oriel having trefoil-headed lights, with a ground-floor two-light casement piercing the projecting base of the oriel; a later two-light square-headed casement appears to its right. The wing's gable end displays 19th-century pierced and carved bargeboards with a three-light ground-floor casement and two tall 19th-century pointed-arched two-light casements above, with close-studded timber framing visible in the gable apex. An 18th-century wing projects to the left with a cross-gabled roof; its 19th-century ground-floor canted bay window has a hipped roof with pointed-arched lights and enriched spandrels. A left projecting gable-mounted chimney has a diagonal shaft and moulded cap. The west gable end of this wing has a 19th-century two-plus-two-light upper-floor pointed-arched mullioned casement with an original three-light attic window; most fenestration in this wing was altered from sashes in the late 19th century. A 20th-century flat-roofed long west wing is attached but is not of special interest. Courtyard walls project from the wings to the west, mostly with roll-moulded coping featuring large semi-circular cut-outs and ball finials at the south-west corner. Rectangular gate piers of around 1900 have chamfered corners and enriched finials, with iron gates and an overthrow carrying a central coat of arms.

The north side features three parapet gables—an 18th-century example to the right and two early 16th-century examples to the left. A large central 19th-century two-storey canted bay window attributed to F.S. Waller has a trefoil-lancet panelled crenellated parapet, a moulded string course below with stiff-leaf enrichment at the corners, and pointed-arched mullioned casements to both floors. The bay is flanked by 19th-century offset buttresses, with a further 19th-century buttress below the left gable bearing four-light fenestration to its left and three-light to its right on both floors. To the right of the bay is a 19th-century doorway with an 18th-century sash above, both with moulded architraves; other fenestration to the right comprises late 19th-century three-light mullioned casements replacing sashes. The right gable features paired diagonal chimneys.

The east front has a central range with two roll-moulded parapet gables topped by finials, the right gable projecting forward with scattered two-and-three-light pointed-arched mullioned fenestration and hoodmoulds. An octagonal oriel in the angle with the north wing has a single lancet to each face and a pyramidal top. A late 19th-century canted dormer occupies the south slope of the roof. The left gable displays three two-light pointed-arched mullioned casements to the left of a three-centred arched moulded doorway with hoodmould and shields in spandrels, fitted with a plank door; two three-light casements appear on the upper floor and a three-light in the attic. A south wing projects well forward to the left and is early 16th-century in date, extended in the late 19th century; the early part has three-light round-arched mullioned casements. A 19th-century Tudor-arched doorway has a four-panel door with a stone relief portrait of Henry VIII above. An addition of around 1870 features an off-centre cross-gable roof with a parapet-gabled roof dormer to the left, whilst a canted stone oriel projects from the east gable end. A projecting gabled north wing has 19th-century restored two-plus-two-light pointed-arched mullioned fenestration on its south side and paired diagonal chimneys at the gable end. The wing extends to the east to accommodate a late 19th-century chapel with a ridge-mounted central bellcote with a shingled spirelet; the eastern end has an octagonal apse with a single cinquefoil lancet to each face in pointed hoods and a lancet-panelled parapet. A gabled south transept is present, with a north transept added in 1954. A stone gateway to the east courtyard has a hipped roof.

The south side is built into a bank with a 19th-century latrine addition to the gable end; fenestration is mostly a 19th-century alteration.

The interior has been much altered in the late 19th century, though Tudor-arched doorways are retained in the 16th-century section. The main staircase and panelling date to 1898 and are attributed to J. Coates-Carter; an upper-floor window on the staircase bears a 17th-century graffito portrait of a Cavalier. An oriel in the upper-floor room of the south-west wing retains late 15th-century fan vaulting with pendants. The main hall features a ceiling boss of around 1502 and 16th-century stone flags to the floor. The chapel apse by Coates-Carter contains stained glass and decoration by Hardman; the reredos contains a 15th-century figure of Christ. The chapel nave retains 16th-century stained glass in the north windows representing the Nine Choirs of Angels. Most of the roof structure dates to the late 18th and 19th centuries.

Historically, the property originated as a hunting lodge of around 1300 for the Abbot of Gloucester. Most of the core of the present building results from Abbot Parker's enlargement of around 1514. The house is known to have been occupied in 1643 by Cavalier forces. Major alterations were undertaken in the late 19th century for Thomas Dyer Edwardes, with late 19th-century restorations and additions by J. Coates-Carter and F.S. Waller. The property was given to the Benedictines of Caldey in 1928. A spring building in the park is listed separately.