Set between the Malvern and Cotswold hills with all they have to offer, Tewkesbury itself is an ancient and exceptional town. Its abbey church alone is worth making the journey for. Along the main street and in the narrow lanes running off it, medieval and Tudor buildings blend pleasantly with those of later centuries. In one of these lanes, St Mary’s, is another Landmark, a stocking knitter’s cottage.

Abbey Gatehouse, which we lease from the trust that guards the surroundings of the abbey, is a grand building of about 1500, restored in 1849 by J. Medland. His work was thorough but skilful – indeed it is difficult to tell now just how much of the stonework he renewed. The gatehouse has only one room, a very fine one on the first floor. At one end of this we have built a gallery, rather like an organ case. Inside there is everything you need but do not want to see and on its top you sleep, close under the moulded beams of the roof, painted the same colours as the vault of the abbey choir. The soaring west window of the abbey rises only a few yards from your door, as you dwell in the ‘lodging over the great gate’.

View our history sheet for this Landmark.
 

Sleeps: 2