Saracen'S Head Hotel

Saracen's Head Hotel

A hotel incorporating a former Assembly Room, located on the Market Place at Southwell. The main building dates from around 1460, established by dendrochronological analysis, with the Assembly Room added in 1805 by Richard Ingleman. The structure has undergone alterations and additions in the early and late 19th centuries and the 20th century.

The principal east front, facing the Market Place, is constructed of close-studded timber framing with rendered nogging, colourwashed brick underbuild, and a stone plinth. The roof is hipped and gabled slate and pantile with four ridge stacks and a single side wall stack. The building is two storeys tall, arranged in a U-plan with long rear wings enclosing a yard.

The east front displays a range of five small glazing bar sashes on the upper storey. Below is an off-centre carriage opening with a pair of plank doors, flanked to the left by four larger glazing bar sashes and to the right by three similar sashes, the lower lights of which have been reglazed. Close-studded walls under the archway feature arch braces, with a door in the wall to the left.

The south side of the yard contains, to the left, a two-storey late 18th-century brick wing with double hipped roof and dentilled eaves. This has three glazing bar sashes and below them a late 19th-century canted wooden oriel window with leaded glazing, alongside a casement to its right. To the right is a set-back two-bay two-storey range of close-studded timber framing with brick nogging and underbuild. The right gable features arch braces to the tie beam. This section contains 19th and 20th-century leaded casements and a half-glazed door. In the return angle stands a late 20th-century flat-roofed single bay addition. Further to the right is another set-back two-storey range with entirely 20th-century fenestration and a single bay of close-studding above to the left. To its right extends a three-bay late 20th-century addition.

The north side of the yard has, to the right, a two-storey six-bay range of close-studded timber framing with brick underbuild and nogging. The fenestration is irregular, predominantly comprising late 19th-century casements and an off-centre loading door. Below, to the right, is a glazing bar sash flanked by single doors, the left door having a round head. To the left are two garage doors. Further left stands a late 18th-century colourwashed brick continuation of the wing, with a large garage opening to the right without doors.

The interior contains notable features. On the first floor, to the right of the carriage arch, is a room whose north wall bears late 16th-century wall paintings, recently restored. At the north-east end of the front range is a two-bay crown post roof. The north range similarly has a crown post roof with six pairs of jowled posts, arch braces, and close-studded gables. The remainder of the front range and south range have principal rafter roofs. The ground floor of the front range retains remains of timber framing, much of it restored and re-used, together with a late 19th-century dogleg staircase with turned balusters in an early 17th-century style.

The former Assembly Rooms survives as a facade only. It is constructed of brick with stone dressings, the ground floor colourwashed, and topped with a hipped slate roof. The structure rises three storeys, with a plinth, moulded first-floor sill band, and coved brick eaves. The front comprises a four-window range of glazing bar sashes with multi-keystoned lintels. Above are four smaller sashes with plain lintels. A central shallow Doric portico projects with a blind centre, flanked by single glazing bar sashes. On either side stand single glazing bar sashes with multi-keystoned lintels.

Historical significance: This building served as the lodging of King Charles I prior to his surrender to the Scots in May 1646.