Building To Rear Of Nag'S Head Public House

This is a house, now a fragment, dating back to approximately 1400. It is timber-framed with a plain tiled roof. The surviving portion comprises a screens passage and a spire truss wall with a room beyond the passage, likely a later construction, forming a gabled range at a right angle to the rear wing of the Nag's Head public house. The front elevation originally had three bays of framing; a wide central bay flanked by narrower outer bays. The ground floor features three arches, the outer arches having ogee heads, and a simple chamfered arch in the centre. These outer arches may have been modified to form doorways and have seatings for horizontal rails. A billet moulding is visible on the tie beam above, where it has been partially renewed. Above, the outer bays are framed with square panels decorated with quatrefoil and trefoil motifs, with simple struts in the central section. A queen post and collar truss is in the gable, with cusped braces and collar purlin supports carrying a projecting gabled roof on cusped brackets. The framing of the side wall also incorporates a possible doorway at first-floor level, with chamfered braces forming a lintel. Inside, there is flame-like carving to an arched doorway in an inner partition parallel to the side wall. Approximately one meter behind this wall is a second wall framed in square panels, featuring a cambered tie beam with close studding above. The inner roof truss has a cambered tie beam and collar with a short crown post, also with cusped bracing. This structure was originally abutted by the rear range of the Nag’s Head public house but is a separate building, likely the earlier of the two. It represents only a fragment of a formerly larger dwelling, with some timbers trenched for missing members in the front wall. The screens passage of a former hall was demolished around 1967 and moved to the Avoncroft Museum of Buildings.