The Black Horse public house

The Black Horse is a public house built in 1929-30 for the brewers John Davenport & Sons. It was designed by Francis Goldsbrough of the architectural firm Bateman and Bateman in a late-medieval and Tudor style, intentionally composed to suggest gradual historical growth rather than a single build.

Materials and Craftsmanship

The building is timber-framed with whitewashed infill and Cotswold stone with ashlar dressings. The roof combines stone and clay tiles. Many of the timbers—including bressumers, wall plates, and bargeboards—are richly carved. Stone brackets are also carved, and metal rainwater heads and guttering feature cast decoration.

Plan and Layout

The building runs north to south, presenting a lengthy frontage to the road on the east and a garden elevation to the west. The landlord's house occupies the southern end of the range. The public house itself has a public bar at the centre, with three additional bar areas housed in projecting wings. Originally these comprised a combined Dining and Assembly Room projecting from the southern end of the west front, a Gentlemen's Smoking Room at the northern end of the western front, and a Mixed Smoking Room projecting from the northern end of the eastern front. An Outdoor Department (off-sales area) was located immediately south of the Mixed Smoking Room on the east front.

The off-sales area has since been removed, and the bar rooms are now connected by wide doorways to form a series of interconnected spaces for eating and drinking. However, each room retains its original individual character. A colonnade along the western side, which originally overlooked the garden and incorporated a garden service area, has been glazed and incorporated as an extension to the public bar area. Entrance halls are located at either end of the ground floor, off which are lavatories. At first-floor level, a large Club Room occupies the centre, with a Committee Room above the former Mixed Smoking Room in the eastern wing.

Eastern (Road) Front

The road front has a projecting central portion with a higher ridge than the recessed wings to either side. This central section is timber-framed with close-studded walling rising from a stone plinth, which continues around the entire building. The central portion is divided into four bays by moulded posts. The two central ground-floor bays each have full-width glazing with eight by three lights, divided by mullions and transoms. The principal entrance door is set at the middle of the left of these two bays and has a moulded surround and four-centred head. The far left bay has a horizontal window of six lights, while the corresponding right-hand bay has one of four lights and the blocked doorway of the former off-sales department.

The first floor has a deep jetty supported by carved figurehead brackets, and the bressumer is richly moulded. A continuous horizontal window runs below the eaves, overlaid by two central oriel windows with moulded surrounds and gabled heads that incorporate the row of horizontal lights. The steep roof above has four dormer windows, each with two casement lights and a hipped roof. Raised cross-axial gables flank the central prominent roof, their coping stones projecting above the roofline, with prominent cross-axial stacks featuring moulded chimney flues attached to them.

Projecting to the right of the central portion is a prominent gabled wing with close-studded walling and richly carved timbers. Its eastern gabled end has a canted two-storey bay window. At first-floor level on either side of this are deep brackets carved in the form of horses, rising to support the deeply jettied gable end. The gable end has cells of decorative timber framing. The flanks of the wing have two- and four-light windows with carved heads to the lights. Recessed to the right of this wing is a further range with stone walling to the ground floor and close studding to the first floor. This has a doorway with a moulded stone surround and Tudor arch, and a staircase window extending through the full height of the first floor.

To the left of centre are two projecting gabled wings with close studding. Each has an oriel at first-floor level supporting a jettied gable with decorative framing. The manager's house at the far left has stone walling to the ground floor and timber framing above, with a door right of centre and a combination of three-light casements and random fenestration.

South Flank

The south flank has a projecting stack right of centre with ashlar and tiled offsets. To the right of this, the ground floor is stone walled with a two-light casement. Above, the first floor has timber framing and a three-light casement. To the left of the stack, the walling to both floors is stone, with five-light mullioned windows to each floor and a tile-hung gable.

North Flank

The north flank has a gabled wing with a first-floor oriel and jettied gable featuring decorative framing and carved bressumer. At ground-floor level is a late-20th-century projecting flat-roofed store with stone walling.

Western (Garden) Front

The garden front combines stone and timber-framed vernacular architecture. At the far left is the timber-framed north end of the spinal range. Projecting left of centre is the single-storey former Gentlemen's Smoking Room, which has stone walling to the ground floor of its west front and a canted bay beneath the jettied timber-framed gable. Its northern and southern flank walls are timber-framed, with a projecting chimney breast to the north side.

At the centre of the front, the first-floor windows repeat the continuous horizontal band seen on the road front. Below these, the roof slope continues as a clay-tiled catslide over the colonnade, which was formerly open to the garden and glazed in the late 20th century. This has circular pillars of Cotswold rubble with ashlar caps and concrete lintels. There are three small attic dormers and a later gabled ventilation grille to the attic. The left-hand bay of the colonnade has been blocked, and above it is a projecting gabled wing with small-framed walls.

The dining room wing projects to the right and has stone walling and a flat roof. At the centre of its west front is a canted bay, with mullioned and transomed windows to the flanks. To the right of this is a three-storey tower with a prominent chimney stack and a gabled wing, both of stone. At the far right is the rear of the manager's house, which has two joined timber-framed gables at first-floor level with stone walling to the ground floor.

Interior

Public Bar

The Public Bar has small-framed walling and a beamed ceiling. The southern end of the room gives the impression of a large inglenook, with a lower ceiling and a fireplace with a stone surround that includes a carved roundel showing a rearing black horse. A glazed porch and new bar counter and bar back in blond oak were inserted in the early 21st century in the original position against the west wall. The northern wall has an inserted wide entrance leading to the former off-sales area, with which the public bar is now combined.

Former Mixed Smoking Room

The former Mixed Smoking Room has oak panelling to the lower walls, above which are panels of small framing with cusped heads. A fireplace in the south wall has a carved stone surround that has been painted. The beamed ceiling has been lowered at the sides to accommodate ventilation ducts.

Former Gentlemen's Smoking Room

The former Gentlemen's Smoking Room has timber-framed walls and a carved stone Tudor fire surround to the north side. The roof is panelled to its upper part, but the lower body of the roof trusses can be seen, and these have a series of vertical struts. Fixed benches have been removed from the sides of the room below the moulded dado, and a bar, which is a free-standing extension of the service area, has been added at the south-eastern corner of the room.

Dining or Assembly Room

The Dining or Assembly Room has wood panelling to its lower walls, with arched tops to the panels. The moulded and panelled ceiling has been adapted to incorporate ventilation ducting, so that alternating rows of panels are either at their original height or suspended.

Southern Entrance Lobby

The Southern Entrance Lobby has panelled walls and a barrel-vaulted plaster ceiling with rectangular panels that have moulded borders of foliage. At the top of the wall is a fluted frieze with small rectangular panels in relief showing medieval figures drinking. Doors lead to the kitchen and to the dining room, and an archway flanked by Ionic columns gives access to a staircase to the first floor.

First-Floor Anteroom

The first-floor anteroom, off the staircase landing, is similar to the entrance hall below, with a barrel-vaulted plaster ceiling with rectangular panels bordered by a continuous vine trail. Rectangular plaster bosses placed at the intersections of the panels show characters in period dress.

Club Room

The Club Room occupies much of the central first-floor area. It is lit by continuous horizontal windows to its east and west sides, which have cusped heads to the individual lights. Aisle posts stand proud of the wall to support encased ties, moulded crown posts, and heavy arched braces. Wooden brackets at the tops of the posts were carved by Jean Hahn with figures apparently representing different races. At the south end is a stone fire surround with a richly moulded support below the mantel shelf, carved by Sidney Smithin. Above this, a diminishing exposed flue has a bracket to its centre that supports a bronze bust of Baron John Davenport, chairman of the brewery.

Committee Room

The Committee Room is approximately square and in early-18th-century style. It has painted bolection panelling to the walls and a plaster ceiling with a deeply moulded circular wreath surrounding a shallow central dome. A northern dogleg staircase leads down to the entrance lobby at this end of the building.

Former Manager's House

The former Manager's House has an entrance hall divided from its staircase by an open screen of moulded balusters. The ground-floor living room has been subdivided.

Pursuant to section 1(5) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, it is declared that the single-storey flat-roofed store to the north of the Black Horse, which was built after 1936, is not of special architectural or historic interest.