Cross Keys Public House

Cross Keys Public House

This is a timber-framed building at the centre of the village that was originally built in the 14th or 15th century as either a domestic or communal structure, with additions and alterations dating from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

The building is constructed of timber-framing with later whitewashed brick walling and a gabled roof. The 19th-century portion has red brick walls laid in English garden wall bond with painted stone dressings and a hipped slate roof.

The building is oriented east-west. The medieval part lies to the north and appears to have had an open hall of two or more bays with a cross passage. Soot blackening of the timbers indicates an open fire was originally used. A cross-axial brick stack was later inserted on the east side of the remaining central cruck, and a floor was inserted. Subsequently, the sides of the roof were raised and a shallow-pitch slate roof was imposed. Parallel to this and to the south is a mid-19th-century two-storey public-house range.

The majority of the windows have been replaced with uPVC substitutes in the late 20th or early 21st century. The south front facing the road has the projecting mid-19th-century range to the left, which features a stone band at the level of the first-floor window sill running around this part of the building. The left-hand bay projects forward. At ground-floor level, there are tripartite windows with splayed heads at far left and right, with two doorways with stone surrounds to the centre. The right-hand doorway, with brackets supporting a projecting lintel, was originally the main entrance as indicated in early photographs. This has been partially blocked and a window imposed to its upper body. A former ground-floor window opening to its left has been adapted to form the entrance. At first-floor level, the four bays have splayed heads and nine-pane sashes. The east end of this block is blind with a central stack with offsets. The western end has a similar central stack flanked by 16-pane sashes, and a nine-pane sash is positioned at first-floor level on the left. The older portion, recessed and to the east, has whitewashed brick walling with a cogged band to the top of the wall. The brickwork and all openings appear to date from the 18th or 19th century. At ground-floor level are three casements and a door with a cambered head. The first floor has a timber sign board. The east gable wall has a door with cambered head to the right and a window with a similar head at the top left, which may originally have been a taking-in door to a hay loft. The north face is largely masked by later additions, including a clapboarded garage at left, a flat-roofed extension to the kitchen at centre and a lean-to extension at right. The ridge to this rear part is clearly warped, particularly at right where the medieval timber is found in the interior. Two gabled dormers are set to the centre at first-floor level. All fenestration on this front is of 20th-century date. The western gable wall has been rebuilt externally with 20th-century bricks.

Internally, the 19th-century front range has a lobby entrance leading into two bars. The eastern bar room has some match-board panelling below the dado, but no other original fittings, and the bar has been rebuilt. The rear range contains three cruck trusses, none of which show signs of weathering and are all assumed to have been internal trusses of the original structure. The original end walls have both been lost. There is soot blackening to both sides of the easternmost truss and to the eastern side of the middle truss; all timbers are substantial. The most complete of the three is the easternmost truss, which has full cruck blades descending to the ground with a low tie beam, queen struts and a cranked collar. To the apex is a yoke. Both the collar and yoke are triple-pegged and all other joints are double-pegged. Doorways have been cut through part of the southern cruck blade at both levels. The middle cruck has lost its lower body, but the upper truss remains with a similar arrangement of yoke and cranked collar. The tie, which is set higher than in the eastern timber, has a wattle groove along its top edge. The western truss retains part of its northern blade, visible at first-floor level, and other fabric may be immured. A portion of plank and muntin screen to the lower body of the truss is evident at ground-floor level, with a long tie above and part of the sill plate. The rest of the wall has been rebuilt in brick, but the tie, which extends for the full length of the wall, appears to have a two-centred door head at its north end. Trenches in the cruck blades indicate that the roof originally had a single substantial purlin to each side. The roof was raised in the 18th or 19th century and it appears that the original purlins were re-used. The ridge beam is not visible, but the undulation of the ridge seen externally may well indicate that the original timber is preserved in its original position.

A corrugated metal lean-to garage attached to the eastern end of the north side of the building is not of special or architectural interest.