Cross House

Cross House, Church Street, Tewkesbury

A large house, now comprising a surgery, flat, and two shops, positioned at the corner of Church Street and Tolzey Lane. Originally two separate properties, it dates from the early 16th century but received a third storey in the 17th century. The building was extensively restored around 1865 by Thomas Collins, a local builder and stonemason who used it as his own residence. Photographs from 1932 show the structure without the shop fronts currently visible, which appear to be late 19th-century designs.

The exterior displays close-studded timber-framing with rails and plaster panels, beneath tile roofs and brick stacks. The plan comprises a broad street front with two lower gables set beneath steeply-pitched transverse roofs rising to high end gables, with a long three-gabled return following the curve of Tolzey Lane to the right. The front elevation is jettied at the first and second floors, whilst the return is jettied at first-floor level only.

The Church Street elevation is three storeys with basement and attic. The left gable features a two-light casement in moulded architrave above a 1:4:1-light canted oriel with transom beneath a hipped tiled roof. Below the jetty is a further oriel without transom, above a 19th-century decorative panelled door set within a four-centred timber head and stone plinth course. The right gable displays a three-light casement above a 1:5:1-light canted oriel with transom under hipped tiled roof, with a similar canted oriel below the jetty flanked by small two-light casements above a transom, creating a continuous band of windows. All 17th-century windows are leaded with ovolo-moulded members. The ground floor carries a double shop front with deep recessed doors beneath a blind box with moulded cornice and deep fascia, supported by pilasters and console brackets. The timber framing displays edge-moulded studs and rails, a moulded bressummer face to the second-floor jetty, and a moulded band running across each gable above the windows. The Tolzey Lane elevation has recently renovated or replaced timbers, with a first-floor jetty on carved brackets at the left end, three wide gables, and various three- and four-light casements, some with transoms, two slight square oriels, and six- and seven-light bays. A door under a narrow transom light stands at the right end, with a panel of brickwork on stone plinth at ground-floor level on the left. A wide flat-roofed dormer surmounts the back elevation above brick walling from demolished adjacent premises. Two large brick stacks serve the gables of the front block, with one gable containing a two-light casement to the attic above another below.

Interior features include substantial structural timbers. The right shop contains two very large chamfered transverse beams with exposed joists, whilst the left has two large moulded beams to a central beam with large moulded joists, mirrored in the adjacent lobby. The cellar features a central pier of squared dressed stone and stonework in outer walls. A half-cylindrical recess in stonework adjacent to Tolzey Lane may indicate a former well, with some brick vaulting carried on cast-iron beams.

The wide main lobby is flanked by four bays of linenfold panelling to dado height, with a top rail of stopped chamfers and sunk panel, moulded posts to lintels carved with flat ogee detail and figures of various animals and dragons, with plastered panels. Moulded beams on flat arch braces and a fourth double-wave moulded beam with broad roll-mould-edged joists span the space. A large mullioned and transomed internal glazed light in the return arm, with a heavy beam carried on a chamfered post but cut off mid-span, leads to the wide Thomas Collins staircase. This rises to quarter landings in a very large open hall or well with moulded solid strings, handrail, square newels with ball finials, and turned balusters. The balustrade returns at landings. The upper flight, set further in than the lower, has a balustraded gallery on concave plastered support overlooking the whole, lit by a nine-panel glazed laylight. Two large mullioned casements light the hall from the southern wall.

The first-floor front parlour displays complete 17th-century panelling with enriched pilasters and a continuous frieze featuring winged angels' heads, together with a richly carved Jacobean fireplace incorporating three deep arched niches. Two heavy chamfered transverse beams span this room. The central waiting room also contains 17th-century panelling with an Ionic pilaster fireplace. A toilet compartment retains some linenfold panelling. Doors are principally 19th-century panelled work in cable-mould architraves. At second-floor level, the main parlour has 18th-century dado panelling, with the fireplace wall displaying 17th-century panelling and an 18th-century fireplace with an overmantel area of decorative 17th-century plaster featuring fleur-de-lis and a coat of arms within geometrical panels with raised mouldings. The attic storey was not accessible for inspection.

Thomas Collins, the stone-mason and former owner, has been described as "the first important conservator" in Tewkesbury. Engaged in numerous important works from 1860 onwards, before the major 1870s proposals for Abbey restoration, he clearly saved many important structures from decay or demolition. His work at Cross House was substantial, though the original layout remains unclear; whilst as much early work as possible was retained, the precise original position of features such as the main lobby detail is uncertain. Collins is commemorated by a prominent memorial in the south transept of Tewkesbury Abbey. His building firm, later trading as Collins and Godfrey, ceased operation in 1970.