15 And 16, Church Street

TEWKESBURY

SO8932 CHURCH STREET 859-1/6/92 (South side) 04/03/52 Nos.15 AND 16

GV II*

Pair of houses in row. Late C15, early C17 inserted floor and stairs. Close-studded timber-framing, brickwork, tile roof, brick stacks. PLAN: right-angle plan with paired gables to the street, formerly jettied: 3-storey, 2-bay front block linked by central gallery to 2-storey rear block with C17 inserted ceiling to upper hall. EXTERIOR: high in the gables are blocked 2-light casements with mullions, under a moulding, above 3-light casements with transom, and in No.15 including horizontal bar C19 casements. Similar fenestration at the first floor, but in brickwork, and under the moulded bressumer. At the ground floor are early C18 twelve-pane sashes. To the left is a 6-panel door under transom-light, and to the right a 9-panel door to very shallow transom-light, on 2 high sandstone steps. There are 2 brick valley stacks, and a third stack set back. Rear block has Perpendicular Gothic moulded capitals to shafts beneath jetty. INTERIOR: divided axially into 2 properties, with the jettied rear second floor of No.16 extending across No.15. Details of 15 include the front section with triple chamfered bressumer to the former shop, moulded to the front with mullion mortices, set back beneath former jetty, first-floor chamfered brace and wallpost to lateral tie beam with chamfered soffit, jowl posts to front braced both ways, though removed from front, with a moulded fascia, and second-floor double-chamfered tie beam with chamfered braces; central 2-bay section has joists removed for a dogleg stair with re-set early C17 turned balusters, former first-floor gallery with wind-bracing and arch-braced truss, and 2 chamfered 4-centre arched doorframes, with a T-framed partition with tension bracing and a good C15 ribbed door; rear room has a wall plate, and with c1600 posts supporting inserted ceiling beams; 2-bay roof above is smoke-blackened, with an arch-braced truss with hollow and wave moulding, king post removed, chamfered, tenoned purlins and wind-bracing. Details of No.16 include a central section with an early C18 dogleg stair with simple column-on-vase balusters, the first floor as No.15 with arch-braced truss and wind braces; the rear former hall has an inserted second floor with late C15 quarter moulded bridging beams and wall plate, with a carved piece in the corner with the N wall plate; the front section roof has a chamfered arch-braced central truss with trenched purlins, and collared trusses each end with wind-braces. A most interesting and important town house, which would repay detailed investigation: the plan, with a front block linked by a narrow wing to a fine and substantial rear block with the former open hall, is found on other medieval town house plans: the hall here, however, appears to have been built at first-floor level.

Listing NGR: SO8922932613