The Chequers Public House

The Chequers Public House is a complex of buildings dating back to the 14th century or earlier, with significant additions and alterations in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. It’s constructed primarily of timber framing, rendered in places, and has peg tile gabled roofs.

The front facing Stortford Road comprises a main block and a hipped-roof crosswing to the west. The ground floor features three canted bay windows with double-hung sashes and ground-balancing weights, one sheltered by a lead canopy roof. A late 17th-century doorcase is positioned between the windows, featuring a flat, modillioned cornice supported by a contemporary bracket with carved spirals resembling flowers and crocuses in profile. Steps and an iron handrail lead to the entrance. The long west return frontage exhibits a mix of 19th-century and earlier casement windows, some with cast iron frames. The end of the range is clad in black weatherboarding, which extends onto the south face. A 20th-century cantilevered porch with a canopy roof has been added. A large red brick stack projects through the front roof slope, and several smaller stacks are also present.

The rear of the building includes a lean-to peg-tiled extension and a gabled 17th-century stair tower. The east side of the courtyard, formerly part of number 25, is a long, single-story structure rendered and weatherboarded with a gabled peg tile roof and a tall central red brick stack.

The interior of the front block reveals it to be a two-story structure from the early 17th century, originally jettied towards the rear yard. The west crosswing dates back to the 15th century or earlier, and retains fragments of a crownpost roof. It comprises three bays and is now linked to a high-quality, two-story structure from the 16th century. This section has a former dragon beam in the southeast corner, originally jettied south and east. It was once a single two-bay chamber on the first floor. A further bay, dating from the 18th or early 19th century, has a double-hung sash with a gable base in the south wall. The east yard range is an early 16th-century structure of four bays, characterized by arched braced tie beams, halved bridled scarf joints, and serpentine bracing. An inserted 17th-century stack with a blocked smoke curing hole is also present, and this bay may have been used as a kitchen.