Woodchester Mansion Trust
Woodchester Mansion is unique because it is unfinished. Visitors can see how the house was constructed. The house was built 1857-67 in the Neo-gothic style, with very high quality craftsmanship. Local limestone was used. Wide stone arches hold up the roof. In the dining room the original centering for the arch is still in place. It would have been taken down and reused elsewhere when the lime mortar had set. One of the original scaffolding poles, a larch tree trunk stripped of branches, is visible (top left in the picture above).
The main rooms would all have had stone vaulted ceilings and the springer stones, critical for supporting the stone ribs of the vault, are in place ready. Some have wooden shuttering above them – a Victorian ‘hard hat’ for the building. It protects the fine stonework from damage if workers dropped tools from above. The walls are rough rubble-stone, yet to be plastered.
ThursdayDay Off!
- Saturday11:30 - 16:00
- Sunday11:30 - 16:00
- Friday11:30 - 16:00
Own or work here?
