Forthampton Court

Forthampton Court is a country house with medieval origins that has been substantially developed and modified over more than 500 years.

The building began as a residence for the abbots of Tewkesbury in the 12th century, developing through the medieval and early modern periods. The Great Hall and solar block were probably built by Abbot Thomas Parker in the 15th century. John Wakeman, Bishop of Gloucester (died 1549), added the north-east wing. Minor alterations were carried out by Isaac Maddox, Bishop of Worcester in the mid-18th century. The house was then substantially remodelled by the architect Philip Webb for John Yorke between 1889 and 1891, further modified by F.S. Chesterton in 1913, and again by R. Blenham-Bull in 1958.

The 15th-century hall is rendered. The solar block features close-studded timber-framing to the first floor with brick facing to the ground floor. The north-east wing is brick with a sandstone plinth and diagonal buttresses. The remainder of the house is brick or rendered brick, with a stone slate roof and brick chimney stacks.

The plan comprises a Great Hall with a solar block attached at its north corner, a chapel and mid-16th-century block at the east corner of the hall extended southwards, and the whole now forms three three-sided courtyards.

The south-west facade (the former entrance front) features a triple-gabled, 2-storey former servants' wing on the left, lit by 12-pane sash windows. The two-windowed gable-end of the Hall block is set back to the right and also lit by 12-pane sashes. A large bay window in the right-hand wall of the Great Hall (added by Chesterton in 1913) sits in front of a canted stair turret designed by Webb. The Webb entrance tower on the front right has double plank doors flanked by simple limestone columns supporting a curved wood lintel, with a blind round-headed arch over featuring moulded stone kneelers. Part of the first floor of the right-hand wall of the courtyard retains close-studded jettied timber-framing supported on limestone corbels (by Webb). To the right of the entrance is a sash-windowed block added by R. Blenham-Bull in 1958, replacing a close-studded jettied block by Webb.

The garden front is characterised by a mid-18th-century canted bay to the right and a twin-gabled extension at the centre, positioned where a former canted bay once stood.

The north-east front shows the gable end of the Great Hall at the rear of the courtyard, behind a flat-roofed 20th-century entrance porch. To the left of the porch is a first-floor chapel with a pointed 3-light window with Perpendicular tracery in the gable end. The ground floor has a 20th-century six-light casement with leaded panes and a segmental head. The chapel's right-hand wall contains a two-light window with cusped trefoil-headed lights and a quatrefoil in a rectangular surround. The mid-16th-century block has a two-light window with stiled-headed lights in eroded sandstone to the ground floor. An eroded moulded sandstone string runs between ground and first floors. Eroded stone bosses are set in the brickwork of the first floor. A beasts-head gargoyle projects from the east-facing corner. The bosses and gargoyle are probably reused from the demolished Lady Chapel of Tewkesbury Abbey. The close-studded timber-framed solar block stands to the right of the entrance.

The Great Hall interior spans five bays with trussed collar beams and curved wind braces. A moulded wall plate retains one carved angel corbel. A large original flat-chamfered window surround with a three-sided head is positioned high in the wall to the right of the fireplace; a similar window once stood to the left of the fireplace but is no longer visible. A four-arched flat-chamfered doorway at ground floor level sits to the right of the right-hand window. An open well staircase by Webb leads off the hall to the first-floor chapel, featuring turned balusters and open lattice-work panels.

The chapel has a 2-bay roof with trussed collar beams matching the trusses in the Great Hall. Both windows contain fragments of reused medieval window glass. A blocked single lancet with a mutilated cusped head is visible in the corridor leading off the chapel.

The ground floor of the mid-16th-century block, formerly a gun room, has flat-chamfered coffered beams and a tall sandstone Tudor-arched fireplace.

Webb designed the Billiards Room, library, and small hall. An inscription in Latin above the fireplace in the small hall records the restoration and enlargement of the house by Philip Webb for John Yorke, dated 1891. A Webb fireplace also appears in the former dining room.

The house has a long association with the abbots and bishops of Tewkesbury, Gloucester, and Worcester. It was the childhood home of Henry Yorke, the novelist Henry Green. The building is an important illustration of Philip Webb's approach to the restoration of a historic building.