King'S Arms

King's Arms, a public house and shop with domestic accommodation, stands on the High Street in Bromyard. The building dates from the 16th and 17th centuries with later additions.

The structure comprises timber-framed ranges, largely finished with stucco, with brick additions to the rear. A tiled roof with brick chimney stacks covers the building. The plan consists of one range running north-west to south-east parallel with the road, with two bays for the pub and one for the shop. A three-bay range projects perpendicularly to the rear, alongside various later extensions.

The principal elevation faces three storeys across three bays, with the two left bays housing the pub and the right bay the shop. The building is jettied at first-floor level. The pub section displays stuccoed walls painted in a black and white timber-frame pattern. At ground-floor level, a central front door sits between canted bay windows on either side. The doorway has a moulded hood positioned beneath the jetty, supported by a plain slim column on either side. Ground-floor windows are hornless six-over-six sashes to the bay fronts and two-over-two on the returns. At first-floor level, the right-hand bay contains a bow window with curved hornless sashes and a moulded cornice. The left-hand side has a fixed window with twelve panes separated by narrow glazing bars, two panes forming a casement. Second-floor windows are casements of three lights with horizontal glazing bars, meeting slightly projecting eaves.

The shop section to the right is plain stucco with a 20th-century frontage featuring five large glazed panes separated by narrow glazing bars above a plinth with fielded panel. Two modern doors on the right provide access to the shop and flat. A 20th-century casement window sits at first-floor level, with two dormers containing modern windows and flat roofs at second-floor level. A notable wide brick chimney stack projects from the rear range.

The interior contains evidence of the timber frame throughout both sections and in the roof space. Significant 17th-century panelling survives within the pub. Beams within No. 49 feature wide chamfers and stepped stops. Two jowl posts are positioned in a manner suggesting there was once a front-facing gable.

Bromyard is a small market town first recorded around 840. The High Street, known as Novus Vicus in the late 13th century and recorded as Newe Streate in 1575, was fully built up by the early 17th century, though some plots have been redeveloped since. The rear range of the King's Arms is believed to date from the 16th century. The street-facing range dates from the 17th century and appears to represent a single build later divided. No. 49 may originally have been a cross range with a street-facing gable, subsequently altered.