Description

LOWER SLAUGHTER

1654/0/10001 Village hall
11-JUN-03

II

Village reading room, now village hall, dated 1887, by Thomas Colcutt.

EXTERIOR: Cotswold vernacular revival style constructed of regularly coursed and dressed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings; graded stone slate roof, hipped to right end, gableted to left with lower roughly central gable to front; stone slates replaced by concrete tiles to rear. Front (street) elevation has corbelled gable roughly to centre with clock in recessed panel and datestone (1887) above to apex; lower section of gable has canted bay with mullioned and transomed window divided into 15 leaded lights flanked by cross windows to the returns; similar 3-light mullioned and transomed leaded windows to either side in main wall and small 2-light mullioned window tucked beneath eaves to far right. Entrance to left through 4-centred arch with hoodmould and decorative wrought-iron gates. Left gable end has close-studded timber frame to apex; gabled bellcote to right end wall has louvres and stack breaking through its gable.

INTERIOR: Main body of hall is little altered, retaining its original curved principal roof in 3 bays with stone corbels and curved windbraces to 2 tiers of purlins. On the rear wall a moulded segmental-arched recess, corresponding with a similar recess to the bay window in the front wall, houses a fireplace (now infilled) with blue and white tile inserts. War memorials on carved wooden boards to either side of moulded segmental arch leading to entrance lobby. At the opposite end of the hall hangs a drop scene of the village painted for a theatrical performance held in the building in 1888.

HISTORY: Built in 1887-8 at the cost of ?516, raised by a combination of public subscription and a gift of ?100 plus the land on which it stands, from Charles Whitmore, lord of the manor, the reading room was opened by him in October 1888. Its opening hours were 5pm to 9.30pm on weekdays and 2pm to 5pm on Sundays. Membership was restricted to men and youths and cost 2d per month. Its original use having declined by the 1920s, the reading room became the village hall, in which use it remains. The building was fully repaired in 2002. Built in Cotswold vernacular revival style with high quality detailing, it forms an integral part of the village street scene and part of an attractive grouping with adjoining listed buildings.

SOURCES: D. Verey & A. Brooks, The Buildings of England, Gloucestershire 1: the Cotswolds (1999), p.463, where it is incorrectly referred to as the village hall.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26633568

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

• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)