The Chequers Public House With Attached Stable And Bakehouse

The Chequers Public House with Attached Stable and Bakehouse

A public house with attached stable and bakehouse dating from around 1600, with later additions and alterations from around 1800 onwards and into the 20th century. The building is constructed in timber-framing and brick with hipped peg and flat clay tiled roofs.

The original block runs parallel to the road, with a higher later wing at the west end running northwards towards the road. The stable and bakehouse are positioned at the east end and southeast corner respectively.

The north front elevation comprises two distinct units. The eastern unit is a one-and-a-half storey range with a single storey stable flush at its east end. The wall is now faced in 19th-century red brick. The stable is colour-washed and features a central doorway with a 20th-century boarded door, a small segment-headed fixed window, a second doorway now blocked with an upper 20th-century casement window above. The one-and-a-half storey range has a 20th-century projecting clay-tiled pentice roof supported on two slender brick piers. Below this is a ground floor part-opening casement window and a 20th-century panelled door in Tudor style. A recessed 19th-century wall at the east end has a segment-headed doorway with a contemporary door featuring two lower flush panels and upper glazing. The upper floor is lit by two dormer windows, now with 20th-century casements—one 2-light and one 3-light. To the west, a projecting timber-framed and rendered block from around 1800 has a hipped roof and 20th-century brick plinth. Both ground and first floors have 20th-century metal-framed 3-light casement windows with glazing bars of 6x3 panes.

The south elevation shows the principal unit from around 1600 with a 20th-century wing at the west end of little special interest. An attached 18th-century bakehouse at the east end is linked back to the stable and principal block. The main one-and-a-half storey range is now faced in 19th-century red brick with a dentilled eave. A central segment-headed door has a 20th-century 2-leaf door with upper leaded glazing. To the east is a segment-headed window with sashes from around 1900 with glazing bars of 4x2 panes, then a 20th-century 2-light casement window and another with a single light. The upper floor is lit by three dormer windows: two with 2-light casement windows with glazing bars of 2x2 panes, and one with a single light casement. The principal chimney stack emerges through the roof in front of the apex, with its upper part rebuilt in the 19th century. A second stack rises through the roof pitch towards the hip at the east end. The west end elevation shows two conjoined units. To the south is the end gable of the older one-and-a-half storey house. To the north is the side wall of the taller two-storeyed addition. Running north-south is a 19th-century stack rebuilt in the 20th century, with two first floor sash windows, one with a moulded architrave (the sashes are 20th-century replacements). The southern block has two 20th-century ground floor sash windows with glazing bars of 4x3 panes each. The first floor has a single 2-light casement window. The east elevation of the north front shows a projecting two-storeyed block with two 19th-century sash windows on the ground floor, each with a moulded architrave.

Interior features include principal framing members of a three-celled house from around 1600 on the first floor, with arched braces, posts, tie-beams and evidence of a side purlin roof. The ground floor has been considerably altered, but the central hall ceiling has joists of deep section with carpenters' marks and diminished haunched soffit tenons. A bridging joist is seated on the lintel of a 17th-century fireplace. The originally wide fireplace has been reduced on the north side, and the timber lintel has been under-built around 1800 with a brick segment-headed arch. A backing fireplace for the original parlour is located at the west end, though this appears to be a 20th-century rebuild.

The bakehouse is aligned north-south as a single storey structure of red brick, colour-washed, with a peg-tiled roof and a stack at the south end gable. The west elevation has a 19th-century boarded door and a 20th-century 2-light fixed window. The east elevation contains two windows now boarded in—one 19th-century with glazing bars of 4x2 panes. The south end elevation shows the rear of the stack, rebuilt in 20th-century red brick. Inside the bakehouse, a timber lintel of a large red brick fireplace features simple late 17th-century stopped chamfer. The roof framing is of queen post and side purlin type, with two trusses containing jointed and pegged members, probably contemporary with the original construction. The outer walls are of 18th-century red brick up to the eave with occasional timber bearers. The stable interior is plain red brick. A deep well in the rear yard immediately to the west of the bakehouse is now capped with a 20th-century mock well head.