The Sanctuary (Forthampton Estate)

The Sanctuary, located on Forthampton School Lane, is a house built around 1500, which previously served as a solar block off the hall, now known as Sanctuary Cottage. It features close-studded timber-framing and a red tile roof, with painted brick extensions and stacks added in the 19th to early 20th centuries. The main structure is rectangular with a central projecting porch, flanked by the later brick extensions. The two-storey, three-bay facade includes a central gabled porch that has a single light window with glazing bars above a 19th-century plank door, which is sheltered by a tiled pitched canopy. The extensions on either side of the porch have catslide roofs and are lit by a 20th-century three-light casement with horizontal glazing bars and a two-light casement with glazing bars. There is a gabled access to the former hall, now Sanctuary Cottage, on the upper left, and a projecting right gable-end stack along with a 20th-century lateral stack to the right of the hall access. The original bargeboards on the projecting porch feature carved vine scroll decoration, while the bargeboards at the north gable end display foliate decoration.

Inside, the ground floor rooms have deep flat-chamfered beams, and there is a Tudor-arched stone fireplace with a moulded surround in the former side wall of the left-hand room. The upper left-hand room contains a central queen post truss with a moulded soffit to the tie beam, and braces that form an open wooden lattice with floral decoration at the intersections, along with a heraldic shield above the tie. Three carved wooden bosses, two displaying the engrailed cross of Tewkesbury Abbey and one with the arms of Clare impaling Audley, project from the plain plastered ceilings in both upstairs rooms, while other bosses feature finely carved floral decoration. Both upstairs rooms also have a brattished wallplate, and a loft has been inserted in part of the ceiling of the right-hand room. Historically, The Sanctuary was built by Tewkesbury Abbey and was originally called St. Roberts; it once included a chapel and a dovecot.