Eagle And Child Public House

The Eagle and Child public house is a house, dating from the 16th century or earlier, with a jettied east crosswing and a late 16th-century rebuild of the hall range. It is located on the south side of High Street, St Paul's Walden. An internal chimney was constructed in the early 17th century, with a further chimney added to the north-east corner in the 17th century, replacing a dragon post. The building was noted as an inn in 1725, and the front jetty was underbuilt in brick with roughcast upper parts and the date '1747' set in an oval. Further windows and general renovations occurred, likely in 1836 when it was sold to William Lucas, a brewer from Hitchin.

The house is timber-framed on stuccoed brick sills, with roughcast rendering generally, dark weatherboarding to the west end, and painted brick to the front on the ground floor. It has steep, old red tile roofs. The T-shaped building faces north onto the street. The two-storey, four-window north front includes two- and three-light flush casement windows with moulded surrounds and small panes. A steep-pitched gabled wing extends to the east, featuring a tall, half-octagonal brick chimney on a diagonal at the north-east corner, constructed in painted English bond brickwork, with two rebuilt diagonal square shafts at the top. A six-panel fielded door, set in a heavy frame with a flat hood on shaped brackets, provides access up steps. A wooden bracket and hanging signboard is attached to the crosswing. A large central chimney is located a third from the west end on the front slope of the roof. A single-storey, 18th-century brick and timber-frame, weatherboarded hipped rear wing extends to the south-east.

Inside, the framework of a former two-bay crosswing is visible, exhibiting clasped purlins and adjacent jettied faces on the north and east sides, alongside a dragon-beam cut back for the corner chimney, trimmed by diagonal stop-chamfered beams. The hall range features cavetto and cyma elaborately moulded crossed floor beams, which are mason-mitred and supported on jowls in the rear wall. An axial, cased beam is present in the west bay, one step up. A cellar is located under the crosswing, with a stair in the rear angle and to the south of an inserted internal chimney, which has a very elaborately moulded fireplace beam dating from the 17th century. Holes for wattle and daub infill in the framing of the west wall of the crosswing are exposed as a screen in the bar. Two recesses are present in the rear of the fireplace, which is on the east side of the stack. The building probably originally comprised a three-bay hall range, with a parlour at the west end, beyond a two-bay hall, and the older east parlour wing used as a service area to the east of the entrance. A C18 brick and timber frame, weatherboarded hipped rear wing is present. The building’s name is associated with Robert Stanley, Earl of Derby, who was granted nearby Stagenhoe Manor in 1488.