Brockworth Court

A large house built for Richard Hart, the last prior of Lanthony, between 1534 and 1539, later altered and extended during the 18th and 19th centuries. The building is constructed of random finely squared and dressed limestone with close-studded timber framing. The east side of the east wing is encased in red brick, whilst the south-facing gable has incised render. The west wing is red brick and ashlar. A 19th-century linking passage in red brick with limestone dressings connects the ranges. A rebuilt range to the rear left has a dressed stone plinth with mostly 19th-century brick above, though some earlier brickwork remains visible on the west side. The roof is stone slate with brick stacks.

The plan is fundamentally L-shaped from the 16th century, with an 18th-century range added to the south to form a basically U-shaped arrangement. A further range acting as a store to the rear left appears to have been clad in 19th-century brick whilst retaining an earlier roof structure. The 16th-century range is two storeys with an attic; the 18th-century range is two storeys; the storage range is one and a half storeys.

The north front of the early range features diagonal and side buttresses with offsets. A cross-mullioned window with stepped mouldings and a cinquefoil-headed light with moulded hood and carved stops is positioned centrally, with a similar now-blocked window to its right featuring a hood with scrolled stops and rosette decoration. A small rectangular light and a studded plank door within a rendered surround inserted within a high casement-moulded Tudor-arched surround follow. A small window sits to the right of the archway. The upper floor is jettied out on a cove in two places, with four two-light windows featuring Tudor-arched heads and wood mullions at first-floor level. Barge boarding with foliate decoration incorporating quatrefoils and a finial adorns the eaves.

The south front is dominated by the projecting gable end of the 16th-century range. A 19th-century canted two-storey Neo-Tudor bay window with stone mullions and transoms, Tudor-arched heads and carved spandrels rises above this, complete with a battlemented parapet and a two-light casement above. The right-hand return features three-light segmental-headed casements with keystones to the ground floor. A 20th-century glazed double door sits within a rendered flat-roofed Neo-Tudor porch with battlemented parapet and part-glazed door at the front.

A 19th-century linking passage runs south across the front of the 16th-century linking range, presenting a symmetrical three-windowed Neo-Tudor front. The ground floor contains three-light stone-mullioned windows with transoms and Tudor-arched heads and carved spandrels; the first floor has similar two-light casements above, with two-light trefoil-headed windows and a gablet over the door. A central 19th-century plank door within a Tudor-arched surround with pointed lights either side is positioned beneath a hall light and relieving arch. Ashlar dressings frame the windows and gablet, with a flat-chamfered string between floors and a battlemented parapet featuring grotesques and gargoyles. The 18th-century range projects forward to the left, displaying tripartite sashes with segmental heads and keystones to ground and first floors.

A cellar is accessed via a plank door below the right-hand return, with two cellar windows featuring moulded jambs to the left-hand return. The first floor displays two two-light ovolo-moulded stone-mullioned casements. The store, possibly originally timber-framed but rebuilt in brick above plinth level in the 19th century, is visible on the east front where two-light segmental-headed windows and three segmental-headed plank doors appear. The churchyard front shows two and three-light casements with segmental and gauged brick heads and two two-light eaves dormers. Off-the-ridge gable-end and lateral stacks rise from the main body.

The interior contains a room within the east wing with a flat panelled ceiling featuring moulded oak beams and carved bosses. Narrow moulded wall posts with three-sided bases and capitals support the ceiling. A 19th-century fireplace with keystone is set against one wall. A stone newel staircase, probably once providing access from this room and now visible in a small adjoining room, survives alongside a beam with brattished decoration, possibly reused. The stone newel staircase formerly led to an upper hall open to the roof, though now ceiled in, displaying double purlins, two tiers of windbraces and alternating arch-braced collar beam trusses with curved struts and King post roof trusses. Plastered infill covers the central truss.

Wall painting traces appear on the plasterwork infill to the truss in front of the chimney. These comprise the monogram "IHS" (Christ) within a circular yellow border approximately 0.75 metres across, two plants resembling pomegranates to the lower left and right, the initials "RHP" (Richard Hart Prior) above the monogram, a Tudor rose within a circular border to the upper left, and the initials "RH" to the upper right. A priest's hole is visible to the rear of the fireplace from the roof space. The roof trusses to the range running east-west are also alternating King post and arch-braced roof trusses, though the collar beams to the latter are cambered.