Description

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON

SP2054 OLD TOWN
604-1/6/158 (North East side)
25/10/51 Dower House and Avon Croft and
attached garden wall
(Formerly Listed as:
OLD TOWN
(North East side)
Dower House and Avon Croft)

GV II*

House, divided into two c1740, and attached wall. C16 origins
with later alterations and additions including C17 north wing:
Avon Croft. Timber-frame with roughcast cladding; tile roofs
with brick stacks. Hall and cross-wing forming L-plan with
parallel rear wing attached to cross-wing.
2 storeys; 6-window range to street; left half is Avon Croft.
Brick platt band and top cornice. Entrance to Avon Croft has
architrave, frieze and cornice, overlight to C20 panelled
door; flanking windows with sills and 12-pane sashes in
architraves, 3 similar windows above.
Entrance to Dower House has plain doorcase, frieze and cornice
to 6-fielded-panel door, side windows with 8-pane sashes; 3
other ground-floor windows have 12-pane sashes with
architraves; 1st floor has 3 flat-roofed half-dormers with
12-pane horned sash and two 16-pane sashes. 2 cross-axial
stacks and stack to rear of ridge. Angle to right has attached
2-storey C18 block with gabled roof and round-headed entrance
to right return with shell hood; window with 12-pane thick-bar
sash over. Right return to Southern Lane has 2-storey gabled
projection between gables, some sashed windows; stone
cross-axial stack with
4 clustered but separate diagonal brick stacks.
Rear has small 2-storey gabled wing with return lean-to to
left of larger range with close-studding to return and 2
gables to front; some sashed windows and stone cross-axial
stack with 3 truncated diagonal brick shafts; single-storey
wing under hipped roof to right end.
Rear of Avon Croft has some square framing; gabled stair wing
with return window with 9/6-pane thick-bar sash, similar
12-pane sash to right, to left of gabled porch; mostly
small-paned casements; small courtyard has gables to sides.
INTERIOR: Dower House recorded as rich in original features;
front range has 1st floor open to roof with has
smoke-blackened rafters suggesting original open hall; return
wing has ground-floor room with stone fireplace and late C16
panelling with fluted frieze and 3-panel overmantel, another
has C18 panelling and late C18 fireplace; dogleg staircase has
simply turned balusters and moulded handrail, panelled newels
with enriched pyramidal finials, possibly installed by
Shakespeare in New Place and removed by Sir John Clopton on
its demolition in 1702; 1st floor room has stone fireplace and
late C16 panelling. Avon Croft has dogleg staircase with
slender balusters and square newels; some dado panelling and
2- and 6-fielded-panel early C18 doors.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: early C19 garden wall attached to angle
of house, with round-arched gateway with studded door, and
running approx 40m along Southern Lane; brick with
round-angled pilaster strips and modillioned cornice to offset
coping, recessed gatepiers and C20 gate toward right end.
The house was possibly the manor house for Stratford, and was
owned by the Clopton family until 1738, probably serving as
the dower house.
(VCH (offprint): Styles P: The Borough of Stratford-upon-Avon
and the Parish of Alveston: London: 1946-: 16; Bearman R:
Stratford-upon-Avon: A History of its Streets and Buildings:
Nelson: 1988-: 44; Forrest H E: The Old Houses of
Stratford-upon-Avon: London: 1925-: 141-2; Jaggard G:
Companion to Stratford: Stratford-upon-Avon: 1964-: 55, 59).

Listing NGR: SP2005754472

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17551375

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)