Former Cumberland Hotel

Former Cumberland Hotel, Broseley, Queen Street

An early 18th-century house constructed of red brick with brown brick additions and alterations dating from the mid and late 19th century, beneath plain clay tile roofs.

The building comprises a main rectangular range aligned roughly east-west with subsidiary service ranges to the rear (north). A full-height gabled range at right-angles to the rear at the north-east corner of the original building, and a projecting gable to the left on the main (south) elevation, were both added in the mid 19th century. The gabled range gained a two-storey canted bay projection to its front in the late 19th century. Lower rambling service ranges, some dating to the 18th century and others to the 19th century, extend to the rear. The development of the building can be approximately dated by comparing the 1838 Tithe Map with the 1882 Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, which shows the building's plan essentially as it exists today.

On the south elevation, the two-storey frontage has a projecting gable to the left (marked by a straight joint to the left gable end of the main range) with a dentilled brick cornice to the gable and two twelve-paned sash windows with brick labels on each floor. The central section features a truncated external stack to a central dentilled gable, added in the mid 19th century to give symmetry, flanked by twelve-paned sashes with labels on the first floor—the left now replaced by a late 20th-century top-hung window. Beneath the right window is a late 19th or early 20th-century single-storey projection with three twelve-paned sash windows extending to ground level. Below the right window sits the main entrance, comprising a four-centred arch with late 20th-century Jackfield tiles to the recessed porch and an inner six-panel door with a simple fanlight. The right gable (marked by a straight joint between it and the rest of the range) has a late 19th-century canted bay projection with decorative brick banding and plate-glass sashes—four-paned to the centre and two-paned to the returns—extending to ground level.

The east elevation has an external stack to the left gable end of the main range, its top rebuilt in mid 19th-century brown brick with decorative corbelling and chimney pots to match the stack to the right gable end, which is flush to the wall. The main elevation of the mid 19th-century addition runs back flush and at right-angles to this gable end, with dentilled eaves cornice and three twelve-paned sashes to the first floor. The ground floor has two dripmoulded tall twelve-paned sashes extending to ground; tall ridge and end stacks with similar detailing to those on the main range.

The lower rambling gabled service ranges to the rear are painted brick with sashes. A two-light leaded window appears on the first floor of the main range, to the left of which is a tall four-paned sash with margin lights and dripstone that lights the main staircase in its gabled projection. A small single-storey range attached to the left gable end of the main range has a two-light leaded window and six-panel door in a slight projection to the front; behind it is a mid 19th-century two-storey range with a sash window and dripstone to the front on the first floor.

Internally, the entrance hall has a Victorian encaustic tile floor with similar mid 20th-century tiles along the corridor to the kitchen to the left. The open-well staircase at the back of the hall dates to the early 18th century and features a moulded handrail, wreathed and radiating bottom newels, and turned balusters—two to each tread—with carved open string. Victorian plain stained glass fills the staircase window. The two principal ground-floor rooms to the main range are now knocked into one (the hotel dining room), but the original spaces remain clearly defined. Each retains stop-chamfered spine and cross beams, while a girding beam marks the former position of the front wall. The mid 19th-century addition to the right of the entrance hall is divided into two large rooms: the front now serves as the lounge bar and the rear as the public bar. The lounge bar features a marble fireplace with simple columns supporting the mantel shelf and a 19th-century plaster cornice, probably contemporary with the canted bay addition; a six-panel door in a reeded pilastered doorcase leads to the entrance hall. The public bar also has a plaster cornice, probably mid 19th-century, and panelled window shutters; an elliptical arch with panelled reveals formerly contained double doors between the two rooms but is now filled by shelving.

The first floor is more heavily altered by subdivision into hotel bedrooms and bathrooms, but some cornicing and six-panel doors remain—including some with a horizontal emphasis to the centre panels, like the front door and the door to the lounge bar. The mid 19th-century addition contains a bathroom with fine decorative Jackfield wall tiling of around 1900. The attic of the main range, approached by a secondary staircase, has wide oak floorboards and a double-purlin roof, the trusses of which are not visible; a plank door with strap hinges separates its two rooms.

Historically, the main range and some rear service ranges are shown on the 1838 Tithe Map. The Apportionment for this map indicates that part of the site was in use as The Red Lion Public House and was owned by Lord Forester. The building was extended in the mid 19th century and appears essentially in its existing form on the 1882 Ordnance Survey 25-inch map. It became the Cumberland Hotel in 1948.