Ye Olde Bell Hotel

SU 8283 -8383 HURLEY HIGH STREET (east side)

18/4 Ye Olde Bell Hotel 25.3.55 G.V. II*

Inn. Late C15, altered C17, C19 and C20. Timber frame, painted brick infill, part encased in painted render. Old tile gabled roofs. Rectangular plan of 3 framed bays with former screens passage, a crosswing of 3 framed bays on north; jettied on west. 2 storeys and attics. Rendered chimney on left, brick ridge chimney on right. Road (west) front: irregular 3 gables. Moulded jetty beam. C19, one-bay gable on left with carved bargeboard and 2-light leaded casements to both floors. Wider centre gable with C20, 3-light leaded case- ment window on first floor and similar 4-light window on ground floor projecting on small brackets. Right hand gable with carved bargeboard and early oriel window on first floor having 5-lights with pointed heads, moulded mullions and cill. Entrance porch under with 4-centred-arched head; moulded jambs and spandrel panels; and a C20 glazed door. The porch has an old bench seat on each side. Inside the porch there is a second similar opening but with a planked 2-leaf door with 4-centred arched heads. The section to the right of the entrance has on the left, first floor, a 5-light leaded oriel and to the right an C18 sash window with glazing bars in a moulded architrave. On the ground floor, on the left, a side-sliding sash window with glazing bars and on the right a fixed-light window with glazing bars. Both have shutters, and there is a large old wooden settle between. Interior: most of the timber frame exposed. Lounge: a pair of early C20 glazed leaded entrance doors in a 4-centred-moulded-arched opening with a moulded and chamfered architrave. Large plain ceiling joists but with the principal joists chamfered; unplastered. Ceiling with wide oak floorboards visible. over the joists. There is an arched beam on the east side of the first framed bay with chamfers and plain stops. On the north side of the former screens passage on the former service end, now the dining room, there is another 4-centred arched opening with moulded jambs and head with small carved lions' heads. There is a door opening similar to this on the first floor to the office. The roof has queen post trusses with clasped purlins and curved windbraces; and is probably late C16. The roof to the crosswing is a plain collar roof with butt purlins.

V.C.H. Vol.III. p.152.

Listing NGR: SU8261883708