|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Photos by John Wilkes of Cam
near Dursley, Gloucestershire
The Gloucestershire Photo Library
Page composition by Allan Taylor of Vancouver, Canada
http://www.allthecotswolds.com
Postlip Hall (above left) is a beautiful, large, Grade 1 listed, Jacobean manor house with 15 acres of land, nestling in a quiet valley, surrounded by woods, just below the highest point in the Cotswolds. It is a multiple-occupancy commune.
St. James the Great's church consists of a Norman nave and chancel, with a 17th C bell-turret with ball-finial above the chancel arch. Founded in circa 1139, it was used as a farm-building for several centuries before being restored by H.A. Prothero 1890-91 for Stuart Forster of Postlip Hall. The Norman south doorway has chevron mouldings at right angles on the arch with ball enrichments in the hoodmould above. It also has star diapering to the abaci and lintel, a recessed tympanum ornamented with overlapping fish-scales; and jamb shafts with scalloped capitals. The doorway itself has a later three-centred chamfered stone arch. The interior retains its Norman chancel arch, which also has chebron plus a band of star enrichment beneath a billeted hoodmould, star-diapered abaci, and scalloped capitals. There is stained glass in the church by Ward & Hughes.Postlip Hall has a fine six-gabled south frontage. The house is built round an inner courtyard and has been remodelled and extended several times over the centuries. The earlier portion, the five westernmost bays of the south frontage built in 1614, has steep gables, and ovolo-moulded mullioned and transomed windows, including three two-storeyed bay windows. The larger sixth bay, on the eastern end of the south frontage, is crowned with a sheep-finial and has a similar bay-window and dates from the rebuilding work of 1891. The north range of the house was built in the late 19th C.
