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Stonehouse
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Stonehouse is a town in the Stroud District of Gloucestershire in southwestern England. The town centre is 2.5 miles east of the M5 motorway, junction 13. Stonehouse railway station has a regular train service to London.
The town is situated approximately 9 miles south of Gloucester city centre and 4 miles west of central Stroud, though following recent development it is partially contiguous with the Ebley district of Stroud. It includes the sub-villages of Bridgend (to the south) and Ryeford (to the east).
Stonehouse appears in William the Conqueror's Domesday Book of 1086 under its Old English name “Stanhus” – so called, it is believed, because the manor house was built of stone rather than the usual wattle and daub. William de Ow, a cousin of William the Conqueror, owned the manor lands which included a vineyard, and two mills. The name may have evolved from Stanhus to Stonehouse : stan > stone + hus > house, as an effect of the Great Vowel Shift at the end of the Middle Ages.
The original manor house was completely rebuilt in 1601. In 1906, Stonehouse Court was bought by Arthur Winterbotham who completely refurbished it to a design by architect Edwin Lutyens. and despite a fire in 1908, that destroyed the new interior of the house leaving only the outer shell and a few original features. Winterbotham had the house restored in a similar fashion. Mr Winterbotham died in 1936, leaving his widow Caroline living there until her death in 1974, when the house was sold and, after a period as business offices, eventually became an hotel in 1983 as Stonehouse Court Hotel. It is located next to St Cyr's Church near the Stroudwater Canal. Stonehouse Court is a listed grade 2 building.
Some of the town's oldest trees are in the grounds of Stonehouse Court.
Oldend Hall was occupied by the Beard family from 1661 to the late 18th century. The house was two-storied and largely stone-faced, its entrance front facing north. The half-H plan consists of a central block and two flanking wings extending southwards. The. west wing is structurally timber-framed and dates from the earlier 17th century. The only exposed framing was along the upper story of the west wall; elsewhere the wing has been stone-faced at various periods. The central block has been more drastically altered, but also formed part of the original timber-framed house; the presence of several re-used smoke-blackened timbers in the roof suggests that it may have contained a medieval open hall before it was remodelled. The house was much altered and enlarged c. 1700. The central block was extended eastwards to include a large chimney which stood against its former gable-end. The east wing, entirely of stone with two gables on the east was added and the north front of the older building was faced with stone ashlar to match it. Features of that period include several mullioned and transomed windows, a central dormer, and the central doorway with its semi-circular hood on shaped brackets. The only internal fitting to survive from the earlier house is a 16th-century door with linen-fold panels. Oldend Hall was demolished in 1977.
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