The Anchor Inn And Building Attached To Right

The Anchor Inn and building attached to right is a public house, originally a late 14th-century building with a 17th-century range added to the rear and an early 18th-century outbuilding attached to the right. It was refronted in the late 19th century. The main structure is rendered timber frame, formerly jettied on the west, north and south sides, with late 19th-century brick cladding to the ground floor of the front (south) range. The roof is hipped and double-gabled with old plain tiles. The right-end stack has a stone base with a late 16th-century brick shaft and flue; an internal stack to the left is finished in 19th-century brick.

The late 14th-century building comprises two storeys with a central staircase, truncated at the east end, and is flanked by a 17th-century parallel range to the rear. The south front is a two-storey, five-window range. The ground floor features two 20th-century half-glazed doors, late 19th-century transomed two and five-light windows, and two late 19th-century bay windows with similar windows. Late 19th-century brackets support the coved jetty, which retains a late 14th-century brattished cornice. The first floor has transomed two-light windows. The formerly jettied left gable wall is underpinned by late 19th-century brick. The two-storey rear (north) range has late 19th and 20th-century casements. The outbuilding attached to the right has a 20th-century plain tile roof, is one storey with an attic, and features mid to late 19th-century sash windows and two catslide dormers.

Internally, the late 14th-century building was formerly jettied on three sides with a dragon beam to the west bay and arch bracing to every bay, some of which remain. Exposed close studding with wall bracing is present on the ground and first floors. Ground-floor beams are plain and stop-chamfered, indicating that the ground floor was divided into four chambers with an arched carriage entry and adjoining stairwell and cross-passage in the second bay from the right (east). A plain three-light diamond-mullioned window is positioned to the east. The chamber to the east (right) had a fireplace and was probably a kitchen; the remainder of the ground floor probably had storage or commercial use.

The first floor comprises two large chambers on either side of a central access stair with a smaller chamber at the west end. Remains of two moulded wood-mullioned windows with cusped heads and shouldered cills survive. The first floor formerly opened to a six-bay cross-quadrate crown-post roof with soulace pieces to the arch bracing. Each open truss had wide arch braces (some remain) with soffit chamfering and engaged shafts to storey posts. Tie beams and arch braces retain extensive remnants of late 16th-century wall painting featuring coloured heraldic shields and black-painted arabesques and guilloches, which form part of late 16th-century alterations when the stairwell was filled in and first-floor partitions were moved or repositioned.

A mid-18th-century dog-leg staircase with turned balusters is located to the rear left. The first-floor room to the left (west) has a mid-18th-century panelled dado and dentilled cornice. Mid-18th-century plank and panelled doors are also present.

The unusual plan form and use of ground and first-floor chambers suggests probable original use as a Guild Hall, Court Hall or similar late medieval public building. The manor belonged to Westminster Abbey. Alternatively, Morant, an 18th-century historian, indicates the presence of a College of Canons in the parish, which may account for its proximity to the church.