Abbey Lawn Cottages

TEWKESBURY

SO8932 CHURCH STREET 859-1/6/104 (South side) 04/03/52 Nos.34-39 (Consecutive) Abbey Lawn Cottages

GV I

Terrace of town houses. C15 or early C16, restored 1967 seq. Braced box timber-framing, tile roofs, brick stacks. Part of very long row of late medieval cottages, previously extending from Nos 34-51 (qv); narrow 1-room frontage in 2 storeys and attics, jettied to Church Street, and with various gabled or swept-down extensions at back. This group returns to gable end at left, and is stopped to No.40 (qv) with later front, to right. EXTERIOR: 7 bays, each with a 4-light narrow casement window in box framing above a 2-light timber mullion and transom small-pane casement set in painted vertical boarding above plate on rough coursed stone plinth. To right of each a plank door in cusped flat ogee head, on 2 stone steps, and bracket to jetty to right. Opening to No.39 has iron grille to throughway. Left gable end has paired 2-light to attic, above 2-light to first floor, and one small with 3 normal casements to ground floor. Back has brick extension to Nos 34 & 35, and 2 further broad gabled timber-framed wings, with intermediate lean-to under swept down roof; series of 2-light dormers, on 2 levels, with long raking tiled roofs. INTERIOR: No.36 (National Trust Shop) is typical with fine stone fire surround to cambered bressumer, central transverse moulded beam and chamfered spine beam to heavy ceiling joists. C17 staircase with turned balusters. Part of a terrace of houses, built as a speculative development for the Abbey and each originally planned with a heated hall behind the shop providing access to an upper chamber, as reconstructed at No.45 (qv) which has been restored to original postulated plan form: a most significant example of a medieval terrace. A rumoured threat to these cottages in the 1930s led to their being acquired by the Abbey Lawn Trustees. Frontages and interiors had been much modified, and it was scarcely recognisable as a coherent terrace. In 1965 the Trustees applied for permission to demolish, but inspection of site by SPAB revealed the significance of the structures, and they were substantially refurbished to their current condition from 1967 onwards. Photographs of before and after state can be inspected in No.45 (qv), the so-called Merchant's House, and NMR has photographs of buildings before restoration.

Listing NGR: SO8910332534