The King's Head (also known as The Low House)

The King's Head, also known as The Low House, is a former farmhouse now used as a public house. It was built in two phases during the 16th century, with alterations and additions made in the 18th and 19th centuries. These later changes included incorporating an 18th-century outbuilding, possibly a workshop, as a rear cross-wing in the 19th century, probably to serve as a ground-floor cellar.

Materials and Construction

The main range is timber-framed and plastered. The façade is scored to imitate ashlar and features brick stacks and a thatched roof. The cross-wing is plaster rendered, possibly over a timber frame, with brick used in the extended 19th-century section and a pantile roof.

Plan

The main range is rectangular on plan, aligned north-west to south-east, with a rear cross-wing projecting to the north-east. For simplicity, the description uses cardinal compass points as though the main range stands on a north to south alignment.

Exterior

The two-storey principal façade faces west towards the Church of All Saints, which is listed Grade I. It has an off-centre right doorway flanked by two casement windows on the right-hand side and a single casement window on the left-hand side. The first floor has three casement windows, with the two on the right-hand side positioned directly above the ground-floor windows. All windows, probably dating from the 18th century, are subdivided by glazing bars into small rectangular panes. The thatched roof has deep overhanging eaves with an early 21st-century ridge piece and a 19th-century central ridge stack with a cogged cornice.

The south gable end is blind and has an off-centre left external stack of painted brick, possibly 18th-century, with the upper section rebuilt in red brick in the late 20th century. To the right, the south wall of the cross-wing is of painted brick with a small-paned casement window and a truncated external stack, all probably 19th-century.

The north gable end has a six-panel door on the ground floor and a small-paned two-light casement window on the first floor, both centrally placed.

At the rear, the northern half of the eastern elevation is obscured by a 19th-century lean-to. A cross-wing, formerly an 18th-century outbuilding which was extended and incorporated into the main range in the 19th century, probably as a ground-floor cellar, projects to the east at the south end. The lean-to is of painted brick with a 20th-century slate roof and has an off-centre left plank and batten stable door flanked by a small-paned casement window to the left and a large-paned casement window to the right. An external stack to the main range, now largely of 19th and 20th-century red brick with a cogged cornice, rises through the lean-to roof at the north end. Above, there is a small casement window placed at the centre of the first floor. A plank and batten door to the left-hand side of the lean-to gives access to the main range. Left again, the north wall of the cross-wing has an off-centre right doorway with double plank and batten doors with glazed panels. The walling to the left-hand side of the doorway is plaster-rendered, while that to its right is of 19th-century painted brick. Its east gable end, which is also plaster rendered, is lit by a two-light casement window.

Interior

The front door leads directly into the main bar area in the southern portion of the pub, to the south of the ridge stack, which has remained largely unaltered since the late 19th century. This area is known as the Settle Room because it is dominated by high wooden settles on the east, south and west sides, all fixed to the ceiling beams by iron brackets, with their backs defining a corridor running round the room. This settle-based snug is a rare survival, with only seven known examples identified by the CAMRA Pub Heritage Group, including the North Star in Stevington, Oxfordshire, the Red Lion in Kenninghall, Norfolk, and the Galway Arms in Retford, Nottinghamshire, all listed at Grade II. On the north side there is a brick-built fireplace with a plain wooden surround, moulded mantelshelf and an unusual two-tiered, stepped hearth with a swivelling hearth crane and flanking spice cupboards to the upper hearth. Placed above the left-hand side doorway in the east wall is a former service bell of probable late 19th-century date. The walls have tongue-and-groove dado panelling, above which they are plastered and painted, with two plank and batten doors on the east side and two exposed wall studs on the south side. Very little framing is exposed on the ground floor. The ceiling is also plastered and painted, with a slightly chamfered transverse beam spanning the south end, supported on the east side by a chamfered and jowled wall post. The floor is of red and black quarry tiles laid in a diamond pattern.

On the south side of the Settle Room, a reused two-panelled door gives access to a small, rectangular-shaped room known as the Card Room. It has fixed bench seating all around the room, attached to tongue-and-groove dado panelling, above which the walls and ceiling are plastered and painted. On the south side there is a boarded-up fireplace with a 19th-century wooden surround with roundels in the corner blocks. Its floor is of red and black quarry tiles laid in a linear pattern.

At the south-east corner of the Settle Room, immediately to the right-hand side of the jowled post supporting the transverse beam, a doorway gives access to two rooms in the rear cross-wing. The first room, which occupies the western half and is known as the Tap Room, has pew seating placed against plain panelled dado walls on the east, south and west sides. The walls above the panelling are plastered and painted on the north, south and west sides, while the east wall and ceiling are clad with tongue-and-groove panelling. Its west wall, which was formerly an external wall to the 16th-century range, has a horizontal sliding sash window of which the left-hand sash has been removed and the opening infilled. The floor is mainly laid with black quarry tiles in a diamond pattern. The exception to this is a small area of red and black quarry tiles laid in a diamond pattern on the north side of the room. This floor tiling defines a passageway from the Settle Room to the ground-floor cellar in the eastern half of the cross-wing, where customers' glasses are filled directly from barrels kept on a stillage. This historic service arrangement, in which drinks do not pass across any kind of counter or hatch, is believed to survive in just seven pubs in England. The cellar has a concrete screed floor with a wooden-framed stillage supported on brick legs placed along its east and west walls. A separate wooden counter with painted wooden legs stands along the north wall. Wooden shelves are placed all round the room, with the north wall also having a large wooden cabinet with glass panels. A small servery, possibly of late 19th-century date, stands in the south-west corner. It consists of an open timber frame with a doorway on the north side and three tiers of modern shelving enclosing the remaining three sides.

The northern section of the main range, to the north of the central stack, is occupied by the pub's Dining Room. Originally a living room until 1992, it is accessed from the Settle Room through doorways on either side of the fireplace, of which the right-hand side doorway has a timber lintel, brick floor, exposed wall framing with an original window opening now blocked, and exposed ceiling joists. The Dining Room itself has an early 20th-century cast-iron fireplace along with late 20th-century settle seating and wooden laminate flooring. The walls and ceiling are plastered and painted, with the latter having two unchamfered transverse beams.

The kitchen in the 19th-century lean-to retains no historic fixtures and fittings of note.

The first-floor living accommodation is accessed by a straight-flight staircase placed on an east-west alignment to the north of the central stack. The area to the south of the stack is subdivided into two rooms by 18th-century panelled partitions with matching doors, all with painted oak graining. Both rooms display a significant amount of exposed timber framing, including the wall plate, wall studs and jowled wall posts, along with curved wind braces to the east and west walls and straight wind braces to the south wall. Although the insertion of an attic ceiling means that the upper section of the roof structure is not visible, principal and common rafters are exposed below this, along with a tie beam in the south wall. On the west side, directly above the main door, an original window opening, now blocked, is visible. In the northern portion, to the north of the stack, three rooms are accessed off a north-south aligned corridor on the west side. One room has an 18th-century panelled door with painted oak graining, while the other two have plank and batten doors with iron latches. Most of the framing in this section is concealed behind plastered walls, although some wall studs and an original window opening, now blocked, are visible in the east wall.