The Old Bull

The Old Bull is a house, now a hairdressing salon and residential property, dating back to the early 14th century, with substantial alterations in the 16th and 17th centuries, and further changes in the 19th and 20th. It is constructed of timber framing, rendered with plaster, and has a roof covered in handmade red plain tiles. Originally an aisled hall house of three bays, two bays remain facing southeast, set back from the street by the width of what was formerly the front aisle. A 19th-century stack is located to the rear, enclosed by a 17th-century wing of two bays with a hipped roof. A three-bay crosswing projects forward to the street, incorporating an internal stack, and a two-bay extension to the rear, dating from the 16th century, with a 20th-century external stack on the right. A 19th-century two-storey lean-to extension connects the rear wings, and there are further 19th-century single-storey extensions to the rear right.

The front of No. 45 features a splayed shop window and a 20th-century glazed door, beneath a verandah supported by two elaborately pierced early 19th-century cast iron brackets and a cast iron railing of linked circles. The first floor has a late 19th-century tripartite sash window of 2-4-2 lights. An attic gable window is a 19th-century casement. No. 47 has 20th-century casements on the ground and first floors, and two 19th-century casements in gabled dormers. A 20th-century door with a canopy and brackets is at the left end, and a wide, plain 18th/19th-century door provides access to a passage through the building at the right end.

Exposed timber framing with curved braces trenched outside the studding can be seen on the left-hand elevation of the left rear wing. The hall contains jowled posts, chamfered with step stops, and two cambered tiebeams; one curved brace remains to the open truss at the right end. Evidence remains of an earlier third bay, originally containing a cross-entry and a service bay. Straight arcade braces of square section interconnect, one terminating on the other, a feature also seen at Bacons End Cottages, Great Canfield. The roof is a crownpost roof, with largely complete rafters and collars, heavily smoke-blackened, although the central crownpost and collar-purlin are missing; pegs remain in the collars where they were formerly secured. Aisle tie remains at the left end of the rear aisle, grooved for wattle and daub, with a straight brace with an open notched lap joint. The construction of the aisle is visible externally from the rear of No. 49. A mid-16th-century inserted floor comprises an axial beam, two bridging beams, and horizontally sectioned joists, all chamfered with step stops. An 18th/19th-century brick wall divides off a section of the ground floor to create a rear access. The early 17th-century attic floor has chamfered axial beams with lamb's tongue and notch stops, connecting with tiebeams. The crosswing is a later construction, probably 16th-century, but largely lined with modern materials. The building formerly served as The Bull Inn from 1731, and was previously known as Cocke-atte-Hilles.