The Old King's Head

The Old King's Head is a former public house, now a house, dating from the early 16th century, with a cross wing built in 1599 and further additions in 1661. Major alterations were made in a Fen Artisan Mannerist style, alongside 19th and 20th-century changes. The building is constructed of red brick in English bond, with ashlar dressings and stucco, and has a pantile roof over thatch. The raised brick coped gables feature corbelled kneelers and a single axial triple stack with diagonally set shafts and dentillated tops. It follows a T-plan, comprising a hall block and the gabled cross wing of 1599. Originally featuring a lobby entry, it is two storeys high with a garret and a five-bay front, with the right-hand bay advanced and gabled. An ashlar plinth is present, along with brick and stucco bands and a dogtooth eaves course raised to a dentillated course from the early 20th century. Rusticated brick quoins mark the corners. A centrally positioned panelled double door, with a plain overlight, is set within an added square porch with a flat roof. To the left of the entrance is a margin light sash window, and to the right a similar window, both with rusticated brick reveals and cambered heads. An original blocked door also has rusticated reveals and a pedimented brick head, containing an ashlar panel carved with a lion rampant. The first floor has two margin light sashes flanked by shorter brick pilasters. To the right is the moulded head only of a 4-light 16th-century brick mullioned window. An ashlar datestone bearing the date 1599 and initials TW is set in the gable; a further datestone of 1661 with initials IW is found at the base of the principal stack. The left gable has single blocked windows to each floor, with brick surrounds, segmental heads and stepped-up string courses. Internally, the hall retains a 16th-century roll-moulded bressumer to the inglenook, and a chamfered beam with pyramid stops. An end room has a cyma-moulded beam with ogee stops. The pegged oak roof incorporates a trapped purl and timber and reed partitions.