THE FLEECE HOTEL

Details

GLOUCESTER

SO8318NW WESTGATE STREET 844-1/8/384 (South side) 23/01/52 No.19 The Fleece Hotel (Formerly Listed as: WESTGATE STREET (South side) Fleece Hotel)

GV I

Inn, now part of a hotel. C15 range above late C12 undercroft, the range altered and extended in late C16, late C18 and in C19.The undercroft of stone rubble with dressed stone details; the range above timber-framed with later brick extensions rendered in part; slate roof. PLAN: a long C15 range above undercroft at right angles to the street, with a short cross-gabled wing at the south end, on the east side of a courtyard set back from Westgate Street and entered through a carriageway below the west end of No.17 Westgate Street (not included) and from Bull Lane. C18 extensions to the west front of the range and extensive C19 additions at the south end of the range. EXTERIOR: the range of two storeys and attic, placed at right angles to the street, is built above the earlier undercroft; the north gable-end wall abuts the rear wall of No.17 Westgate Street. Late C18 single-storey extension on ground floor to front of range facing yard has a large, semicircular bow window to left lit by a row of four curved sashes with glazing bars (each 4x4 panes). Entrance doorway to undercroft to right and entrance doorway to hotel lobby approached by flight of steps. Further right a large C18 bay in extension with sashes with glazing bars. The roof of the extension is a balcony with a timber balustrade of square posts and stick balusters. Above the extension the front of the gabled wing has exposed timber-framing of square panels and diagonal braces. INTERIOR: within the range portions of timber-framing exposed on both floors; late C19 staircase from entrance lobby to first floor; large bar to right of lobby opens into C18 extension to front of range, a storey post to the former front wall of the range, now within the bar, carries a curved brace which may have supported the former first-floor front jetty. The fireplace in the rear (east) wall of the bar has moulded stone jambs of c1500 and a shallow ogee-arched head without moulding, probably a replacement of the original. The larger part of undercroft below the southern end of the



range has a segmental barrel vault in five bays defined by transverse chamfered arches which spring from semicircular wall piers with concave capitals and square abaci; in the rear wall a doorway with a flat lintel and a segmental-arched recess in each of two adjoining bays in the west wall at the north end. The lateral walls of the vaulted undercroft incline as though pushed outwards by the thrust of the vault. Flagstone floor is raised above the original level. Above the smaller northern part of the undercroft two timber bridging beams, the northern beam with stopped chamfers. A brick walled passage from the north-west corner of the undercroft leads to a brick vaulted cellar below No.19A Westgate Street (qv). HISTORY: the undercroft, an exceptionally fine and early surviving example of its type which bears comparison with examples elsewhere in the country and in Northern Europe, is the surviving part of a merchant's house in a property which originally extended westward to Bull Lane, and recorded in the St Peter's Abbey rental of 1455 as a great tenement that had belonged to Benedict the Cordwainer in the reign of Henry III. The property is believed to have been developed as an inn in c1500 by the abbey, and is first recorded as the Golden Fleece Inn in 1673. Considerable alterations and repairs were recorded between 1772 and 1778. (Transactions of the Bristol & Gloucestershire Arch. Society: Household HGW: The Fleece in Upper Westgate Street.: 1946-1948: 37-57; BOE: Verey D: Gloucestershire: The Vale and the Forest of Dean: London: 1976-: 245-6).









Listing NGR: SO8309518588

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

472596

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Verey, D , The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire 2 The Vale and The Forest of Dean, (1970), 245-246
Household, H G W, 'Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society' in The Fleece in Upper Westgate Street, (1946-1948), 37-57

End of official list entry