Stratford Park

House, in local authority ownership since 1936. Built in the late 17th century for the Gardiner family, with initials G.G. (Giles Gardiner) and date 1674 inscribed on lintel to rear. Remodelled and extended to front (south) in circa 1780s, probably by Anthony Keck for Nathaniel Winchcombe; top storey removed in 1892. Built of squared and coursed limestone, with ashlar fronts to south and east; parapetted slate roof with ashlar stacks.

The original 17th-century house was extended to front (south) to create a double-depth plan with central stairhall.

The building is two storeys with bracketed cornice and plat band to the 18th-century east and south elevations. The four-bay south front has a parapet (remodelled 1890s) swept up to ashlar stacks, 6/6-pane sashes in square-headed architraves, and blocked windows flanking the entrance (remodelled 1892) which features an Ionic porch and 1890s doorway and architrave. The five-bay east elevation has a pedimented central bay with similar first-floor sashes; the tall ground-floor sashes have large four-pane bottom sashes. A Venetian window with Corinthian capitals lights the first floor of the central bay, above a wide tripartite window articulated by Ionic capitals with half-glazed door to the right of 6/9-pane sashes. The west elevation retains late 17th-century stone-mullioned windows, some with leaded lights and a variety of chamfers, ovolo and cavetto mouldings; a lintel with initials and date sits above a doorway with late 17th-century cyma-moulded architrave and late 18th-century six-panelled door. Similar two-light windows appear on the rear (north) elevation, including a projection now with flat roof.

Internally, the front hall and ground-floor room to the left were remodelled in the 1890s; the latter retains panelled dado and fireplace. Principal ground-floor rooms had fireplaces replaced in the 1890s, though some late 18th-century fireplaces with neo-classical enrichment survive, particularly in first-floor rooms. A ground-floor room to the rear right has retained late 18th-century panelled dado. Enriched plaster cornices with neo-classical ornament appear in the ground-floor room to the right, rear dining room and central stairhall (now subdivided); also on stair landings (with fluted brackets to cornice matching the stairhall) and to most first-floor rooms. Original joinery including panelled doors and shutters with original brass fittings is preserved throughout. The stairhall contains a fine late 18th-century open-well staircase with guilloche and honeysuckle motifs to patterned cast-iron balustrade, opening at first-floor level through arches with rosettes to panelled intrados into two vestibules to front and rear. A late 18th-century service stair to the rear left has stick balusters and ramped handrail.

The Stratford Park estate belonged to the Gardiner family between 1653 and 1778, when it was bequeathed by Sarah Gardiner to James Winchcombe of Bownham Park, Rodborough. His son remodelled the house. The late 18th-century work bears strong similarities to the local work of Anthony Keck, whose Gloucestershire commissions included Bowden Hall, Atcombe Court and Flaxley Abbey.