Dent's Terrace, Winchcombe

Dent's Terrace lines the south side of Abbey Terrace in Winchcombe, a row of ten almshouses stepping down the slope end on to the street. Sir George Gilbert Scott and J Drayton Wyatt designed them in 1865 for John Coucher Dent and his wife Emma, the owners of Sudeley Castle, and they are listed Grade II. They are still almshouses, ten two-bedroom homes run by the Chandos and Dent's Almshouses charity.

History

The almshouses were built in 1865, the year carved on their porches, and the listing calls them a good example of the Dents' generosity. The Dent family, Worcester glove makers, had bought Sudeley Castle in 1837. Scott was already working for the family at Sudeley, where he restored the chapel, rededicated in 1863. His partner here, J Drayton Wyatt, went on working in the town: his last work in Winchcombe was Vineyard Bridge of 1891.

Emma Dent and Winchcombe

Emma Dent did more for the town: she gave Winchcombe its first piped water supply in 1887 and wrote Annals of Winchcombe and Sudeley, published in 1877.

What to look for

The listing records the row as externally as built, down to its original rainwater heads and the footscraper in each porch. Look for:

• The stone, good dressed limestone in cream, yellow and pink
• The houses paired under coped gables that step down the hill, each with a two-light dormer split by a small octagonal column
• The gabled porches, whose gables carry the date 1865 and the letter D in turn
• The street end, with a coped gable, a big chimney stack and a carved coat of arms
• The gate piers at the entrance, listed in their own right

Visiting

Dent's Terrace is a row of homes, so look from the pavement on Abbey Terrace and do not go up the paths.

Getting there

Abbey Terrace runs past St Peter's Church in the middle of Winchcombe. Back Lane car park is a few minutes' walk, and the 606 bus between Cheltenham and Chipping Campden stops in the town, Monday to Saturday. On foot, the Winchcombe and Belas Knap walk passes the row on its way to Vineyard Street, and both the Winchcombe, Belas Knap and Cleeve Common walk and the Cotswold Way from Winchcombe to Cleeve Hill start on Abbey Terrace beside it.

Nearby

St Peter's Church, with its gargoyles, is a few steps away, and Vineyard Street leads down past Vineyard Bridge over the River Isbourne towards Sudeley Castle. For a meal or a bed, the White Hart and the Lion Inn are both a few minutes' walk.