Nottingham Arms

An inn on the High Street in Tewkesbury, dating from the early 16th century with the front rebuilt in the 20th century. The building is timber-framed with plaster or brick panels and a tile roof with brick chimney stacks.

The plan follows a three-room parallel arrangement with a central chimney breast at the back of the middle room and a gable stack at the rear. The staircase is positioned in the middle section adjoining Walls Court.

The exterior front is in two storeys with two windows, built in applied framing with the ground floor set back under a reconstructed jetty. At first-floor level are two large replacement four-pane sash windows in moulded boxes. The ground floor contains a continuous run of four plus four-light leaded casements with a transom leading to a central door, behind which is set a good 19th-century three-panel door. The steep roof rises behind one full gable and one half gable, with a small stack to the right forward of the ridge.

At the rear, the roof slope continues across Walls Court, which is accessed from the street under the adjoining number 130. The rear wall is framed with a small two-light casement with bars. A large projecting gabled addition has a two-light casement facing into number 130. The long framed wing has a brick end section and gable, with various casements along the long wall, some early with leading. A ridge stack in 17th-century brickwork rises from this section. From the court is an entrance door under a four-pane transom light and a door in a canted link between the two parts of the building.

The interior structure comprises regularly-spaced chamfered transverse beams carried on large wall posts, with square panel framing to the party walls, though much is now concealed by later partitions, ceilings and wall finishes. Fireplaces have been covered or removed. Various 17th and 18th-century doors survive, and some windows retain early butterfly catches.

The ground-floor front bar, probably originally two rooms, features a fine early 16th-century moulded beam with four-compartment section to the left, with moulded beams carried around the walls forming a cornice. To the right is simpler but early framing, with a very broad ovolo-moulded transverse beam inserted beneath the earlier structure. At the back of the room is a small doorway with an ogee-moulded timber lintel, similar to those found at 34-48 Church Street; this lintel, set on later jambs, may have been acquired from those properties. The winder stair is positioned to the right.

At first-floor level, the front room, originally full-width, has been subdivided with little historic fabric visible. Elsewhere on this level various historic elements survive, though cupboards, partitions and ceilings conceal much of the fabric. In the party wall with number 128 is a deep squint-like window embrasure with a small square slab of glass facing into the adjoining property.

The roof space retains original fabric but was not accessible. A small cellar lies beneath the centre room with stonework in the party walls and an entry from Walls Court. A deep embrasure to the front probably connected to a front cellar, now blocked. The cellar ceiling has one large transverse beam.

The refacing of the front has somewhat concealed the historic interest of this property, which the Victoria County History dates to circa 1500. The best remaining feature is the ground-floor bar with its rich ceiling, but the entire early structure survives and is notable for its probably original cellar.