Bell Court

Bell Court is a detached house in Cotswold vernacular style, dating from the late 16th or early 17th century. It is built of local limestone rubble with ashlar and rubble chimneys, and has a Cotswold stone slate roof. The house is of two storeys and attic, and is approximately cruciform on plan.

The main south-west elevation has a full central gable with moulded coping and kneelers. The two-storey central porch repeats this gable design and features a circular window with stone surround; the door is a 20th-century replacement. On either side of the porch are windows to the ground and first floors, with a further window in the first floor gable. The main, rear and north-west elevations have two-light chamfered stone mullion windows. The ground floor south-east elevation has a three-light mullioned window under a hood mould. The windows throughout feature 19th-century leaded lights with decorative iron catches. To the rear is a roughly central chimney gable with a single diagonal ashlar stack; a second stack has been removed. A single-storey lean-to extension at the rear dates from the early 20th century and has 20th-century metal windows.

The ground floor contains a principal room and kitchen. The principal room has a 17th-century stone fireplace with a very depressed four-centred arch and two moulded mantel shelves on brackets above a plain lintel. The room is distinguished by a 17th-century moulded plaster ceiling with geometric fields decorated with fleurs-de-lys and thistle motifs, running either side of a large chamfered beam with scroll end stops. The kitchen has a similar beam, a large inglenook fireplace with plain timber lintel and a bread oven, and a stone-flagged floor. A stone winder stair leads to the first floor, featuring an early door with the remains of a wooden latch. Doors throughout the house are plank and batten doors, probably dating from the 17th century.

The first floor contains two rooms, each with early plank and batten doors with wooden latches and some contemporary iron door furniture. The principal room has a similar but simpler fireplace to its ground floor counterpart. The attic is reached by a timber winder stair. The main roof structure is largely intact, with three trusses each consisting of principal rafters with collars and trenched purlins. A diagonally set ridge purlin is clasped between the crossed principal rafters. Additional framing forms the gables to the front and rear.

The house reportedly dates from 1575, and the fabric supports a late 16th or 17th-century date. It is situated on the Roman road from Easton Grey, which became the major route from Stroud to Gloucester. Bell Court was previously the Bell Inn, one of five coaching inns in the village. However, it was reportedly built as a farmhouse for nearby Court Farm, which dates from the 16th or 17th century, and was known as Court Farm House before becoming an inn. The original house appears to have been rectangular on plan with a large external rear stack. The porch to the main elevation was added soon after the house's completion, probably in the later 17th century. Ordnance Survey maps show that a lean-to extension was added to the rear between 1883 and 1903, though this may not be the current rear extension.