The Bull Inn

The Bull Inn

This public house on Church Street in Blackmore comprises two houses that have been combined, dating from the 15th and early 16th centuries and extended in the 20th century. Both buildings are timber-framed and plastered with exposed framing throughout, roofed with handmade and machine-made red clay tiles.

The northern house was built around 1500 and consists of a long-jetty main range of two bays, with a jettied cross-wing of two bays to the right dating from the 15th century. This cross-wing was extended to the rear by one bay in the 17th century with an internal stack in the rear bay. A short gabled wing has been added to the rear of the main range, featuring a 19th-century external stack at its end, and a single-storey lean-to extension has been added to the rear of both parts. The northern house also has 20th-century single-storey extensions to the left and rear.

The southern house, abutting the first, comprises an early 16th-century long-jetty range of three bays with a stack in the middle bay, and has 20th-century single-storey extensions to the rear right along Bull Alley.

Externally, both houses are of two storeys, though the roof of the southern house stands higher owing to its wider span. The northern house has on its ground floor two splayed bays of sashes of early 19th-century origin, later altered in the 20th century—the left bay has 8:24:8 lights and the right has 4:20:4 lights. The first floor has two 20th-century metal casements. The ground floor is plastered, and both parts of the house have jetties with exposed joists of framing, each featuring two curved tension braces trenched outside heavy studding. The cross-wing has a moulded tie-beam and some renewed studding. The left gable end displays exposed studding with the high collar of a crownpost roof, and there are two metal vents on the ridge.

The southern house has on its ground floor one similar bay of 8:24:8 lights and one 20th-century metal casement; the first floor has two 20th-century metal casements. The ground floor is plastered with a continuous jetty featuring exposed joists of square section and three 20th-century brackets. On the first floor, the framing is exposed with close-spaced heavy studs and two Suffolk braces, one of which is renewed. A gablet hip appears at the right end of the roof. The right elevation facing Bull Alley has exposed framing at both storeys with close studding, one curved tension brace trenched outside on the first floor, and two Suffolk braces, one renewed. Two 20th-century casements are present, and some of the studding has been replaced.

Internally, the long-jetty range on the left has plain joists of horizontal section across the whole span and a blocked stair-trap in the rear right corner in front of the present bar, with original rebated hardwood floorboards. It was built without studding at the right end against the earlier cross-wing. The roof structure comprises jowled posts, a chamfered square crownpost with straight braces to the internal tie-beam, and a collar-purlin with four slightly curved axial braces. The cross-wing has unjowled posts and curved braces trenched outside heavy studding. The ground-floor studding and braces to left and right have been removed. In the left wall are diamond mortices for an unglazed window with one mullion on each floor, indicating that in the 15th century the site to the left was still undeveloped. Plain joists of horizontal section are visible, though the roof is inaccessible.

The three-bay range on the right has transverse and axial beams moulded to a deep hollow chamfer with stops of unusual design, and similarly moulded joists of horizontal section in the left and middle bays, plain in the right bay. On the first floor is a blocked original hearth facing left with an elaborately moulded mantel beam. The studding is close with chamfered tie-beams with step stops; the roof is inaccessible. Also on the first floor is an 18th or early 19th-century screen of 12 borrowed lights containing much handmade glass, and a horizontal sash of 6+6 lights.