Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 10/04/2014

SO81NW
844-1/3/469

GLOUCESTER, Matson
MATSON LANE, (East side)
Matson House and attached wall

(Formerly listed as Selwyn School and attached wall.

Previously Listed as: Matson House, MATSON LANE, Matson)

23/01/52

GV II*

Former manor house, now residential home. c1575, for Richard Pates; purchased by Jasper Selwyn c1597; early C18 alterations; additions and alterations c1785 for George Augustus Selwyn; alterations in early C19; occupied by Selwyn School from 1958, restored and partly refitted for school from 1970. C16 house of stone under later roughcast with dressed stone details, late C18 and C19 additions in brick, gabled stone slate roofs, brick stacks, some with suites of diagonal shafts.

PLAN: the C16 house a compact U comprising a lateral range, which originally contained the great hall, and two wings flanking a narrow entrance court facing Matson Lane; on the left side of the C16 house a long, lateral, service range added in late C18 or early C19 replacing a shorter, early C18 wing.

EXTERIOR: two storeys, basement and attics; on all sides of the C16 house moulded string courses at first and attic-floor levels, dressed stone quoins at the corners and stone coped gables linked by parapets; most of the gables with decorative apex finials. On the front the two similar, end-gabled, flanking wings have crenellated parapets on the sides facing the entrance court; in the cross-gabled centre of the lateral range between the wings on the ground floor the entrance doorway remodelled in the late C18 in a plain opening with a cornice above supported on end brackets and door with two fielded bottom panels and a large, glazed upper panel with glazing bars (3x4 panes with Gothick cinquefoiled foiled bars in the heads of each pane, but some recently damaged); on each side of the doorway an C18 sash and on the first floor two similar sashes all with glazing bars (originally 3x4 panes of similar Gothick pattern), in the gable-end wall of the right hand wing on the ground floor two sashes with glazing bars (3x4 panes replacing sashes with Gothick panes) and on the first floor two sashes with glazing bars of similar pattern but with Gothick panes. In the gable-end wall of the left hand wing on the ground floor a central sash and a sash to right, and on the first floor a central sash and a blocked former sash to right, in the side of the wing facing the court and adjacent to the lateral range a sash on each floor, all the sashes with details similar to those in the centre; in each of the gables to the wings and to the centre a C16 two-light, stone-framed and mullioned casement with eared hoodmould, one retaining original margin leaded lights. On the east side on the left the cross-gabled side of the right hand front wing projects beyond the end-gable wall of the lateral range on the right; in the latter on the ground floor a doorway with hood on shaped brackets, a sash on each side of the doorway, and a single light casement to right; on the first floor two sashes and a narrow, stone-framed sash to right, all the inserted C18 sashes with glazing bars (3x4 panes) and Gothick arched panes, in the gable a C16 three-light, stone-framed and mullioned casement with eared hoodmould; on the side wall of the wing to left on the ground floor a tall, single-light, stone-framed 2-light casement (top pane leaded) to left, on the first floor a small, stone-framed casement to left, a small, stone-framed quatrefoil vent to right, and in the centre a large painted sundial dated 1596, above the apex of the gable a tall brick stack. Rear elevation has two cross gables linked by parapet; on the ground floor a central doorway, approached by a flight of stone steps, with a doorhood on shaped brackets and door with details similar to entrance front door, to left a C18 sash with glazing bars (3x4 panes) and Gothick panes; 4-light stone-mullioned window to far left, with original leaded margin panes to top; on the first floor C16 windows on two levels, on the lower level three two-light, stone-framed, mullioned casements with eared hoodmoulds, and between them on the upper level under the string course two similar casements, at the left hand end a tall single-light casement and at the right hand end a small, stone-framed single-light casement with eared hoodmould, in the left-hand gable a two-light and in the right hand gable a four-light, stone-framed, mullioned casement, both with eared hoodmoulds. The east front is partly masked to right by the addition of the late C18 or early C19 wing, in the angle with the wing a stair turret, to ground-floor left a small timber window in 6 leaded panes, to left in the end gable wall of the lateral range on both the ground and first floors a large tripartite sash with glazing bars (both with stained glass panels), and in the gable a three-light stone-framed, mullioned casement with eared hoodmould. The late C18 or early C19 wing added to the left side of the house is of two storeys with full basement at rear, with stone slate roof; two ridge stacks with chimney pots and a reduced gable-end stack; on the front an offset plinth, and on front and rear a brick band at first-floor level and at parapet level; on the front on each floor seven sashes with glazing bars (3x4 panes) and at the rear four double casements with glazing bars in openings with segmental arched heads. Further undistinguished single-storey extension.

INTERIOR: in the central entrance hall to front and rear early C18 wood panelled three-bay arcades with basket arches, early C18 staircase to right; in other rooms on both floors late C16 and C17 panelling, some reset; in early C19 the former C16 gallery in the attic divided into three rooms and the two former drawing rooms on the south-east side refitted and interconnected through wide doors. A room in the attic, constructed by George Selwyn as a Roman Catholic chapel for his adopted daughter, has a C16 window which contains three panels of painted glass of c1785 by William Peckitt depicting the figures of two friars and a nun, each in a Gothick foiled frame.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: From the north-east corner of the house a wall running east between the garden and the stable yard with the Selwyn coat of arms carved on a stone panel on the south side.

HISTORY: the house was built on site of medieval manor house held by Llanthony Priory. Richard Pates was Recorder of Gloucester, Member of Parliament for Gloucester, and founder of Pates Grammar School, Cheltenham. George Augustus Selwyn, Member of Parliament for Gloucester, had sash frames fitted with Gothic pattern glazing bars in the head of each pane, possibly at the suggestion of Horace Walpole who visited Selwyn several times. In 1643 the house was requisitioned as the lodging for King Charles I and his sons, Charles and James, and the headquarters for the Royalist forces, during the Siege of Gloucester. Grooves cut into a stone sill in an attic bedroom are believed to have been made by the young Princes. A brass plaque in the hall records the visit by King George III and Queen Charlotte, accompanied by the Princess Royal and the Princesses Augusta and Elizabeth, on 29 July 1788, whilst staying at Cheltenham.

Listing NGR: SO8481515463

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17537627

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 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)