The Swan Inn

NEEDHAM MARKET HIGH STREET (WEST) TM 0854

3/71 The Swan Inn (formerly listed as No.9 (Swan 9.12.55 Hotel)) II

Public house, late C16 with alterations of 1850 (date on building). A 3-cell building with cross-passage entrance. 2 storeys. Timber-framed and plastered, the two end cells were jettied towards the High Street until C19 when the front walls were underbuilt in gault brick (now painted) up to 1st floor level, and the left-hand gable was also encased. Plaintiled roofs; the end cells have large gablets designed to appear as cross-wings; they have bargeboards pierced with linked circles and with spike finials. A central gabled dormer of similar design also bears the date 1850. Axial and end chimneys of gault brick. Small-pane sashes of c.1850; at ground storey is a central paired sash and at each end a splayed flat-roofed bay. C19 entrance door of 3 panels, the upper pair are glazed with an etched design which includes a Swan motif; a pair of pilasters and simple pediment. In the hall are roll-moulded floor joists and a matching binding-joist, all reused from an earlier C16 building. In the formerly jettied front wall is a carved pilaster with the knee above, now exposed within the bar. Other late C16 framing is plain, but the attic floor members have composite ovolo-moulding. Clasped purlin roof. The will of Sir Francis Needham (d.1632) mentions the Inn under its previous name of The King's Head.

Listing NGR: TM0897654790