Cleeve Hall

Cleeve Hall, Bishop's Cleeve

Former residence of the Bishop of Worcester, now offices. The building was constructed around 1250 and substantially altered in 1667 by Bishop Nicholson of Gloucester, as indicated by a datestone on the porch. Further alterations were made in the 18th century and in the 1970s.

The building is constructed of coursed squared and dressed limestone with a stone slate roof and rendered stacks on ashlar stumps. It originally had an H-shaped plan, with this form modified by 17th-century infill between the solar and service cross wings on the east front. The building now stands two storeys with an attic, and has 20th-century flat-roofed extensions to the rear of no special interest.

The almost symmetrical entrance front displays the gables of the former solar and service wings to the right and left respectively, with a corner buttress with offsets to the right-hand corner. The left-hand gable features a single 2-light double-chamfered stone-mullioned casement with stopped hood at ground floor level, with an 18th-century Venetian window with Gothick glazing above. The right-hand gable has a matching window to the first floor with a 12-pane sash below. The 17th-century infill between the gables contains a cross window with leaded panes and projecting moulded lintel on brackets to the left of the porch, with two similar windows to the first floor flanking the porch and two 12-pane sashes with dressed stone surrounds to the right of the porch.

A hipped 2-storey porch with a painted datestone dated 1667 between the two floors features a round-headed entrance with moulded arch and imposts flanked by Ionic pilasters with plain frieze above. Double 19th-century wrought iron gates sit within the opening. Above the entrance is a 2-light casement with leaded panes, early fastening and projecting moulded lintel on brackets, with traces of a painted sundial to the upper right. A 17th-century door within the porch is made from two planks with fillets imitating pilasters to round-headed arches with keystones and a heavy moulded frame.

The right-hand return displays two 12-pane sashes with plain stone architraves and a double-glazed door with horizontal glazing bars at the far right. The rear elevation features a gable projecting forward to the left with a 4-pane sash and a late 18th- to mid-19th-century 2-light casement with leaded panes at ground floor level. A pointed window with Gothic glazing and moulded surround, partly infilled at the bottom, sits above. A central projecting stairs turret with 20th-century buttress contains an early 2-light casement with leaded panes towards the top, with a dressed stone surround probably formerly for a sash window now filled with 20th-century frosted glass to the right-hand return. A range parallel to the main body projects forward from the south-west corner, featuring two 20th-century cross windows with steel casements at ground floor level, a central flat-roofed dormer with two 2-light steel casements with leaded panes, and a small single light now blocked to the upper left. The building has axial stacks with moulded cappings and a lateral stack to the service range, with flat gable-end coping with roll-cross saddles, one retaining a ball finial.

The interior has been subdivided but retains a stone screen with three pointed chamfered stone arches that would formerly have led to the kitchen, buttery and pantry, with the central arch being wider. A fourth arch to the west is blocked by a 20th-century glazed door. At the upper end of the former hall, visible from the solar cross wing, the upper part of a doorway with a 2-centred arch and segmental-pointed rere-arch indicates there was once an internal stair at the north-west corner of the hall opening into the solar. The original medieval roof of the solar cross wing, with curved-braced cambered collar beams, is reputed to survive above the present coved ceiling. Moulded intersecting beams, possibly 16th century or earlier, sit beneath the solar. A 17th-century dog-leg staircase with turned balusters and ball finials rises from the ground floor to the attic. A large 18th-century classical style mural painting adorns an alcove on the first landing. An 18th-century fireplace flanked by Roman Doric columns and enriched cornucopias faces the buttery screen. A Regency fireplace and doorcases appear in the room behind. The walls and coved ceiling of the front room of the solar wing are covered with a well-preserved mural painting of 1810 depicting rural scenes and houses connected with the Townsend family. Some Regency painted and stained glass survives, including a depiction of the Crucifixion in the Venetian window.