Red Lion Hotel

The Red Lion Hotel is a hotel that likely dates back to the mid-15th century, originally built as a pele tower, with an early to mid-18th century wing added. The entire street front was refaced and had its windows changed in the late 18th to early 19th century. The building features rubble construction, which is rendered and painted on the front, plain-tiled roofs, and stone chimney stacks.

The pele tower has a rectangular plan and a slightly projecting three-storey design, with a one-bay street front and two bay returns. It has a low plinth, with sash and casement windows set in architraves. There is a loop window on the left side, which lights a mural stair, framed by a later cable-moulded surround. An incised band runs beneath the top storey, and there is a projecting panelled flat-coped parapet supported by rendered corbels. The roof is pitched with a blocked window, and there is a corniced lateral stack from the 18th century on the right side.

The three-storey, two-bay wing features a low plinth and a four-panel door on the right, set in an architrave with a frieze and cornice, and sheltered by a distyle Tuscan porch. The wing has two-light windows in architraves, with replaced sashes and casements, and the central mullion has been removed from the ground-floor windows. There are three round plaques on the top storey, with a fire-insurance mark on the central plaque. Above a string, there is a panelled flat-coped parapet, and the pitched roof has a rebuilt stone stack at the left end. The right return of the pele tower has two cylindrical tapering water-spouts.

Inside, the pele tower contains a two-flight mural stone stair in the left return wall and a stone fireplace on the second floor, which features a moulded two-order segmental arch on corbels supporting a massive lintel. The wing has a four-flight dogleg staircase with a ramped handrail and stick balusters, as well as two pairs of upper crucks that are halved and crossed at the apex. There is an altered two-storey wing on the right of the pele tower and 19th-century rear additions, which are not of special interest. Despite these alterations, the pele tower is significant as a rare example of urban survival.