Boars Head Public House

Boars Head Public House

A timber-framed and plastered public house with a peg-tiled roof, dating from the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The building comprises several interconnected units arranged in an L-shaped plan and stands as part of a group of buildings around a pond.

The exterior is two storeys throughout. The southwest front elevation contains three distinct units, each with a two-window range. The central unit has two 19th-century three-cant bay windows at ground floor with horned sashes featuring glazing bars in 2x2 panes, linked by a central fixed window of similar design. At the northwest end is a 19th-century door set in a simple projecting porch with a six-panel door, the upper two panes glazed. The first floor has two early 19th-century windows with 4x4 glazing bars. Above this sits the principal rectangular chimney stack with upper brick rebuilt but lower courses of thin 17th-century brick featuring a central triangular-sectioned fillet. A second stack stands at the south end.

To the north, a slightly projecting unit has a lower eave with hipped roof at the north end. Its ground floor contains a canted bay window similar to those in the central block, plus a 19th-century fixed window with glazing bars in 3x2 panes and bead-moulded frame. The first floor has two sashes with glazing bars, 3x3 panes, dating to around 1800. To the south, a two-window range unit butts against the central block with a central boarded door and hipped roof at the south end. Stacks rise at both north and south ends. Ground floor sash windows have 4x4 glazing bars, with smaller upper windows featuring one 3x3 pane and one 4x4 pane.

The northwest elevation displays double-pitched hipped roofs of two adjacent blocks, with a stack rising from the apex of the rear northeast roof. The front southwest unit has a ground-floor doorway with a flat cornice hood supported on wooden Tuscan columns, a four-panel door with glazed upper panels and fielded lower ones, and a sash window with 4x4 glazing bars. At the rear, the northeast block contains a two-window range of four sashes, all with 4x4 glazing bars.

The southeast end elevation shows a hipped gable with an exterior stack rising above the eave. The rear ground floor features a weatherboarded lean-to with a 19th-century boarded door with bead moulding and a 20th-century fully-glazed casement window.

The rear northeast elevation is complex. The front central block has a wing at the southeast end with ground-floor lean-tos on each side. The rear range at the northeast end has hipped roofs at both northwest and southeast ends, with four stacks matching those on the front elevation. Fenestration is irregular: the ground floor of the northeast block has a 20th-century door with upper glazing and recessed lower panel, a doorway with a 20th-century two-leaved boarded door, and a 20th-century three-light casement. The first floor has a single 20th-century two-light casement, while the lean-to features a slate roof and a 20th-century two-light casement. The west end has two 20th-century two-light casements at ground floor and one at first floor; the lean-to has three 20th-century small casement windows beneath an asbestos cement roof. The southeast block has a weatherboarded lean-to with pantiles and a single fixed casement window above.

The interior of the central and north end units has been reworked. The ground floor fireplace in the northwest end of the central block has a timber lintel and associated axial joist, both featuring 17th-century lamb's-tongue chamfer stops. The lintel carries a short strut supporting the axial joist, which is repeatedly stamped with the letters IS (eleven times on the lintel and twice on the strut). Similar repeated stamping of fireplace lintels with initials has been found in other East Anglian houses and appears to date to the 17th century, associated with ownership and protection of the building.

The southeast end unit is an 18th-century complete and separate house with primary braced construction using slender, waney-edged hedgerow wood, with some brick infilling between the studs. The Boars Head forms part of a group with other buildings around the pond.