Duke of Wellington Public House, Willingham

Duke of Wellington Public House, Willingham

An 18th-century public house, originally constructed as a row of cottages in the 17th century.

The principal building materials are red brick and elm, with roofs covered in plain tiles or corrugated sheet metal.

The public areas of the building are at ground floor with services to the rear and a landlord's flat above.

The principal elevation faces south onto Church Street. It is four bays wide and one and a half storeys high. The ground floor has two central entrances with a pair of 20th or 21st-century margin-light horned sashes on each side of the doorways. The brickwork shows signs of alteration and repair with patches of older, rougher brick alongside renewed brickwork; some altered brickwork suggests the earlier location of a central doorway and a different configuration of windows. There are four dormers at attic level, each with a pitched roof, small roughcast gable, and a pair of six-light casement windows. There is an end-stack to the right-hand side and a ridge stack to the right of centre.

The west elevation is largely shared with the immediate neighbour, but a small part of the west gable is visible. This is a rough-cast timber-framed wall without any windows.

The east elevation comprises the brick gable end of the street range and an attached single-storey late 20th-century extension. The ground floor of the gable has a 20th-century doorway on the right-hand side. Close to the height of the door lintel is an original brick string course. The upper part of the gable has been refaced in a later phase of brickwork, likely to be late 19th or early 20th-century. The 20th-century extension is a flat-roofed structure built of brick laid in stretcher bond. It has small wooden windows and a large timber door on the north side. A smoking shelter has been constructed as a lean-to addition on its west side.

At the rear of the pub the single-storey 20th-century extension stands on the left-hand side with the barn on the right. Above the 20th-century extension there is a roof terrace accessed by a weatherboarded dormer with a pair of French doors. The barn is connected to the street range by a 19th-century extension with a pitched roof and later 20th-century door and window at ground level. The rear of the street range has a gabled two-storey closet wing with 20th-century windows on both storeys and a doorway at ground level. To the left-hand side of the doorway is the building's only 19th-century window, a small two-light casement.

The barn stands perpendicular to the street range and is three bays wide with gabled ends and a pitched roof. The walls are covered in tarred weatherboard and the roof is covered in corrugated sheet metal. The north gable is blank. The south gable, where it rises above the 19th-century extension, has weatherboards set diagonally below the apex. The long east elevation has a central double-doorway hung on strap hinges and a deep-set window on the left-hand side.

The interiors are divided between front of house, service areas, the landlord's flat, and the open parts of the barn.

The front of house areas consist of two bars in the street range and a third area in the 19th-century link building that connects to the barn and kitchens. The two bars are each two structural bays in length and are separated by back-to-back hearths, which appear to have been built in the 19th century and altered in the 20th century. The eastern bar has a 19th-century quarry-tiled floor and a central post marking the division of the structural bays. The western bar has a lower 20th-century floor and a post supporting a painted, reeded cross beam that marks an earlier partition. Some elements of the timber frame are exposed in the western wall. The bar fittings all date to the early 21st century. At the time of inspection in 2023, the public area within the link building had been stripped of its ceilings, creating an open space up to the rafters of the roof. This area has an exposed Fletton brick late 19th-century chimney breast with a later fireplace.

The service areas within the flat-roofed eastern extension include the WCs and a ground-floor beer cellar. Within the western wing of the pub the kitchens occupy a series of spaces that include a structurally separate unit within the first bay of the barn.

The staircase to the landlord's flat was constructed in the 19th century and has an original cupboard formed of matchboard panels at its base. At the bottom of the stairs the floor is covered in 19th-century quarry tiles. The interiors of the flat have been modified in the 21st century with all walls and ceilings lined with plaster. The rooms rise to the collar height of the roof and each room has a dormer window. The fireplaces have been removed but the chimney breasts remain in situ. Most of the flooring has been covered in 21st-century laminate. There are two 19th-century reeded plank and batten doors with original latches. The western bay can only be accessed through a low doorway beneath the level of the tie beam.

The original roof structure survives largely intact. It consists of common elm rafters, collars, side purlins and a ridge purlin. Some 20th-century sawn timber rafters have been added. Many of the original 17th-century timbers still have their bark. Clinging to the rafters are some remnants of historic thatch and pieces of straw twine. The westernmost bay is almost completely sealed within the roof space by a lath and daub partition, partially opened on the north side.

Internally the barn is a single void with a concrete floor and a structurally separate flat-roofed kitchen unit in the southern bay. Its frame is exposed and is multi-phased. The earliest parts of its structure are likely to date to the 18th century. Some timbers appear to have been reused. 20th-century timberwork supplements and occasionally replaces elements of the original wall framing. The roof structure was entirely reconstructed in the 20th century, except for the gable ends.