128, High Street

TEWKESBURY

SO8932 HIGH STREET 859-1/6/256 (East side) 04/03/52 No.128

GV II

House in row, now offices, with shop. Late C18 front on early C16 main fabric. Flemish bond brickwork front, timber-frame with brick or plaster panels, tile roofs, brick stacks. The high parapeted front conceals a steep transverse roof to parallel-plan front range, beyond which is a long gabled wing in 2 stages. Access to the upper floors is from a side entry in Post Office Alley. 3 storeys, attic and basement, 3-windowed. All 4-pane sashes under painted brick voussoirs with fluted or decorative keys and cornices, stone cills. Ground floor has C19 pilaster shop front with recessed central door, and a deep fascia between console brackets under moulded cornice. There are blocked flat elliptical-headed openings in the stall-board risers either side to the basement. Concrete coped parapet, rendered right return gable. The long wing has steep-pitched roofs over square panel framing with plaster panels. The outer gable has an external brick stack. A flight of C20 steps gives access to the first floor offices. INTERIOR: the ground floor has been opened up, and has full-width chamfered beams, one of these supported on 2 cast-iron columns. Large corner posts, formerly with jetty brackets, are well set back from the facade, with the end of the former jetty joists approx 1m inside the glass. There is some C17 panelling to the party walls, and reset panelling in a back partition. The upper floors, extensively restored c1980, have many exposed timbers, including heavy jowelled posts; one of these, back right at first floor, is unusually heavy, and has a continuous vertical V-groove on one side. There are chamfered and stopped beams, and the attic has early rafters, and wind bracing. There are no exposed fireplaces. This is a good example of a later facade disguising the late medieval fabric, typically also with side alley access, which facilitates differing uses of the ground and upper floors. A sound and thorough restoration has exposed many of the structural timbers internally.

Listing NGR: SO8932032827