Hesketh Arms Public House And Adjacent Mounting Block

HESKETH ARMS PUBLIC HOUSE AND ADJACENT MOUNTING BLOCK

This is a public house dating from the 18th century, with an early 19th-century assembly room and later 19th and early 20th-century extensions. The building is constructed of millstone grit with ashlar dressings, and has stone slate roofs with partial slate to the rear elevation.

The original building consists of two rooms arranged in depth with a central entrance, and includes a partial cellar beneath. An early 19th-century assembly room was added to the east side, containing a large room on both ground and first floors, heated by a chimney breast positioned in the centre of the east exterior wall. Later extensions were added to the west side and rear.

The main 18th-century building presents two storeys and three bays across its front elevation. It is built of small blocks of shaped and coursed millstone grit, believed to come from the local Appley Bridge quarry to the south. The roof is double-pitched with stone slates to the front and slates to the rear, with stone chimney stacks to both east and west gables. The east stack is incorporated into the taller assembly room extension.

The central entrance features a wide, round-headed doorway with monolithic ashlar jambs and voussoirs topped by a giant keystone. Three-panel double doors sit beneath a semi-circular overlight with small-pane glazing arranged in a grid. To each side of the doorway are ground-floor windows with ashlar sills, jambs, and wedge lintels, containing eight-over-eight pane hung sashes. Above these are shallower first-floor windows with similar ashlar detailing and four-over-eight pane sashes, the upper panes of which are fixed.

An early 20th-century hipped porch canopy covers the doorway, constructed of stone slates with shaped and pegged wooden brackets rising from stone corbels. Above the porch, respecting its height, are two small windows with square-cut projecting stone sills and deep, slightly wedge-shaped lintels. These windows contain six small panes with the top two opening via side-pivoting hinges. Between the windows is a stone corbel with an infilled mortice above, indicating that a pub sign was previously mounted here. Rising above eaves level is an early 20th-century pedimented gablet with shaped stone coping and three ball finials.

Attached to the right-hand (east) side is the early 19th-century assembly room, which projects slightly. It is taller than the main building at two storeys, with a single first-floor bay. Built of slightly larger blocks of shaped and coursed millstone grit, it has a double-pitched roof of stone slates with two stone ridge stacks, the left one originating with the 18th-century building, and a later stone stack to the rear at the outer north-east corner. Two ground-floor windows have ashlar sills and deep, slightly wedge-shaped lintels, each containing eight-over-eight pane hung sashes. A large central window on the first floor features a similar sill and wedge lintel, containing a six-over-six pane hung sash with narrow marginal lights separated by wooden mullions.

The interior of the ground floor has been altered, with rooms opened up and the original staircase lost. The first floor retains several original plank doors with thumb catches and strap hinges hung on metal pintels, some in original positions and some re-hung. A central tie beam is visible beneath the landing ceiling. The stone-built partial cellar contains a blocked doorway with a deeply chamfered stone lintel to the right (east) end of the rear wall.

A monolithic two-step stone mounting block stands adjacent to the south-east outer corner of the assembly room extension.

Architectural evidence suggests the building was constructed in the 18th century. Features such as its double front door indicate it was designed as a public house from the outset. The 1824 Alehouse Recognizance records it bearing the sign of the Hesketh Arms, with James Ranicar as proprietor. The Heskeths were one of the principal landowners in the parish, having acquired land there in the 16th century. The 1843 tithe map schedule confirms the Heskeths, specifically Sir Thomas Dalrymple Hesketh, Bart, as owner of the public house, with Edward Dawber as occupant. Dawber is listed as publican in the 1841 census and remained so in 1851. The tithe map shows that the assembly room extension had been built by 1843. The 1894 Ordnance Survey map indicates that a single-storey extension had been added to the left (west) side, together with a long rear range apparently replacing earlier extensions. By 1928 the building had reached its present configuration, with the addition of separate male and female toilet blocks and an altered rear range.