Description

GLOUCESTER

SO81NW RECTORY LANE, Hempsted
844-1/3/445 (North side)
12/03/73 Hempsted House

GV II

Formerly known as: Rectory RECTORY LANE Hempsted.
Rectory, since 1954 a house. Dated 1671, with C18 and early
C19 additions and alterations. For Sir John Scudamore,
Viscount Scudamore. Brick partly rendered in roughcast and
stucco, dressed stone details and features; gabled slate roof,
brick stacks. Originally cruciform; the central projection at
rear extended as a long wing in early C19.
EXTERIOR: two storeys and attic; symmetrical front of five
bays rendered in roughcast with a cross-gable over the
projecting central bay and gabled dormers over the end bays;
chamfered offset ashlar plinth.
The central entrance doorway renewed in mid C18 with a stone
doorcase in gothick style with an ogee-arched head and a
continuous moulded architrave to the jambs and the arch which
is crowned with a large foliated finial; the doorcase is
flanked by slender panelled pilasters with moulded caps and
crowning pinnacles, within each panel thin strapwork in
relief; in the doorway an ogee fanlight with gothic glazing
bars, and a six-panel door with the four upper panels fielded;
repeated from the original doorway the date 1671 and inscribed
on the archivolt of the arch the couplet, "Who'eer doth dwell
within this door, Thank God for Viscount Scudamore"; the
second line of the couplet, as originally inscribed on the
earlier doorcase for John Gregory, the first incumbent rector
to live in the house and later Archdeacon of Gloucester, reads
"Pray God for Viscount Scudamore."
Added to the right-hand bay in early C19 a single-storey bay
window with shallow gabled roof; scalloped barge boards to the
gable and a turned apex finial; the front of the bay a timber
mullion and upper transom five-light casement window; on the
ground floor in the bay immediately to right of the central
projection and in the bays to left stone-framed mullion and
upper transom two-light casement windows; on the first floor
in each bay a similar window and in the central cross gable
and in the dormer over each end bay a shorter two-light
mullion window.
At the end of the rear wing a two-storey canted bay; in each
face of the bay on both floors a sash with glazing bars (3x4)
panes in openings with rubbed brick flat arches and projecting
sills.

INTERIOR: believed to have been largely refitted in early C19.
HISTORY: John, Viscount Scudamore was a devout Anglican and a
friend of Archbishop Laud, formerly Dean of Gloucester, he was
also Lord of the Manor of Hempsted. The house was built for
his wife, as part of his endowment of the Rectory of Hempsted,
but not completed before his death.

Listing NGR: SO8138616988

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26538170

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

• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)