King's Arms Public House

The King's Arms Public House is a house, likely dating back to the 15th century, with alterations and extensions from the 17th century, the mid-19th century, and the mid-20th century. It is timber-framed with rendered infill, replacement brick walling, a dressed sandstone base, and plain tiled roofs. Four diagonal brick stacks rise from the main ridge, each featuring overhanging cap courses. The main range comprises four framed bays, with a lobby entry in the left end bay, and a two-bay cross-wing at the north end, and a single-bay addition to the rear right. Two storeys, a cellar, and an attic with dormers are present. The framing on the main part of the building has some close-set vertical studding to the front ground floor, with mostly single panels to the ground floor and three to the first floor. Straight braces are found across the lower corners of the first floor. The cross-wing is jettied at the front, supported by brackets and a moulded bressummer, and exhibits close-set vertical studding at the first-floor front and on the left side elevation. The dormers in the main roof feature collar-and-tie-beam trusses with queen struts and V-struts in the apex; the truss at the right gable end is partly rebuilt in brick and painted to imitate timber framing, and contains two collars and a tie-beam. Interiorly, the lobby-entry contains a large, back-to-back inglenook fireplace in the left bay. The front ground floor room of the cross-wing has a plaster ceiling decorated with a Garter motif, a floral design, a mermaid, and a Tudor rose, featuring stop-chamfered main beams. Local tradition suggests the house sheltered Charles II after the Battle of Worcester. The front elevation includes a ground floor 3-light casement and a 16-pane sash window; on the first floor, a 3-light casement is flanked by oriel windows on single, decoratively carved brackets – the outer lights of the right-side window are blocked. The left bay contains 20th-century paired plank and battened doors with cambered doorheads. The cross-wing gable end has a ground floor 3-light casement and a first-floor oriel window supported by a carved bracket.