The Wernley

The Wernley is a public house built in 1933-4 in the Jacobean revival style. It was designed by Edwin F. Reynolds of Wood, Kendrick and Reynolds for Mitchells and Butlers Ltd.

The building is constructed of red brick in Flemish stretcher bond with a clay tile roof. It is arranged in a long H-shape, oriented south-east to north-west, with an attached range of ancillary buildings to the north-west and a bowling green to the south-west. The original internal arrangement consisted of a central public bar facing north, with a function room on the south front leading to the terrace and garden. Smoking rooms were positioned to the east and west.

The main building is two storeys tall. The front elevation faces north-east and contains nine bays. The centre features a projecting two-storey canted bay entrance with double doors fitted with a mullioned over-light, a first-floor mullioned window, and a carved-brick shield motif above. The entrance is flanked on either side by three bays containing two transom-and-mullioned windows and a door with mullioned over-light on the ground floor, with a row of four-light mullioned windows above. The left entrance would have been used for off-sales and is now blocked with a disabled toilet behind it. At either end of the building is a cross wing with a canted bay on the ground floor, a first-floor transom-and-mullioned window with an arched head and raised cross in the tympanum, and a glazed arrow-slit surrounded by air vents in the gable. The left return is asymmetrical, featuring a canted bay on the ground floor, four first-floor mullioned windows, and a side entrance with a door surround of carved brick squares and a worn plaque engraved with 'M&B'. The rear elevation also has nine bays. The central seven bays form a single-storey flat roof section extending across the southern half of the building with a diaper brick pattern along the parapet. The central entrance, now blocked, has a projecting porch and an architrave with a carved brick plaque engraved with 'M&B'. The entrance is flanked on either side by two bays with transom-and-mullioned windows and further arched entrances, the right of which is blocked. Behind this range is the first floor of the main building, consisting of a row of mullioned windows and a large central brick chimney stack bearing a square sundial with a gold painted sun and dial on a blue background with golden Arabic numerals. At either end of this elevation are the cross wings, each with a three-light transom-and-mullioned window on the ground floor (blocked on the right wing) and a four-light first-floor window. All windows have leaded casements; some leading within the ground floor windows appears to have been renewed. A range of single-storey hipped roof ancillary buildings are attached to the north-west side. Some served for storage, others as external toilets for the terrace and bowling green, which retain their original tiling and internal partitions. An L-shaped brick arcade, now partly infilled, forms one corner of the bowling green. At its southern end is a hexagonal pavilion topped by a cone roof with a decorative ball finial. The roofs are pitched. A squat central stack rises from the south pitch of the central range and two taller stacks on the north pitch at either end. Two further chimneys rise over the cross wings.

The original ground-floor plan has been reorganised. The main dining area, formed by unifying the former rear function room, toilets, and the lounge in the south-east corner, includes a bar front and back which appear to be late-twentieth-century replacements. The former lounge retains a tile fireplace with timber surround and a plaster ceiling decorated with hops and barley motifs. The separate public bar remains largely original, retaining wall bench seating with radiators below (reupholstered), timber wainscoting, the bar front, and a decorative ceiling with carved beams. Some ground-floor panel doors survive. Two sets of original stairs lead to the first floor—the main set located behind the easterly entrance door on the north side and a rear stairs at the west end—both retaining painted lattice banisters and mahogany handrails. The first-floor plan is largely unaltered, with most original three-panel doors, their door furniture, and metal number plates retained. Two tiled fireplaces and several inbuilt cupboards also remain. The original kitchen, positioned at first-floor level, retains its original tiled walls with coloured bands at dado level and an original fitted dresser. Adjacent are two larders with tile floors and a dumb waiter with original hatch and control panel surviving on all floors.