The Rose And Crown Inn

The Rose and Crown Inn

A coaching inn on the east side of Elham High Street, this is a complex timber-framed building of multiple periods. The left end dates to the 15th or early 16th century and was largely rebuilt in the 17th century. The right end was added or substantially rebuilt around 1740. Early 19th-century alterations and fenestration changes have affected the overall appearance.

The building presents two storeys on a brick plinth. The left end bay has exposed timber framing with painted brick infilling. The remainder is rendered, probably over brick, with channelled render to the right return. The roof is of plain tiles. The facade of the left section appears subdivided by principal posts into three short timber-framed bays (one bay internally) in "square" framing with two panels per storey. The former open hall, cross-wing, and right section have a rendered plat band, eaves band, and parapet, which steps up in front of a stack. The hipped roof has hips returning to the rear with lower ridges.

The fenestration is irregular. There are eight un-paned sashes with narrow top, bottom, and margin lights on the upper floor: one towards the centre of the left section and seven irregularly spaced to the rest (one under, one to the left, and five to the right of the left-central stack). Nine similar windows appear on the ground floor, with one small three-light casement also present. Double doors of three flush panels with a shallow swept and consoled hood sit under the left-central stack. A half-glazed door with a flat bracketed hood is positioned towards the centre of the left section.

Four rendered stacks rise from the building: one to the rear on the left, one in the rear slope to the left of centre (in the former right hall bay), one ridge stack towards the centre (serving the right side of the cross-wing), and one projecting to the right gable end, with a further ridge stack towards the rear of the right wing.

The building's structural history is complex. It probably incorporated an open hall of two timber-framed bays originally. The hall and any storeyed left end bay were largely rebuilt in the 17th century, with their rear wall now almost flush with the rear gable end of the cross-wing. A cross-wing to the right of two timber-framed bays projects to the rear and incorporates an undershot cross-passage. The left return terminates in a short brick rear gable end with a hipped roof. A virtually flush two-storey section with matching eaves, presently flat-roofed, forms the rear elevation of the rest of the left section and former hall. The cross-wing's gable end is tile-hung on the first floor, with a roof hipped to the rear. A further brick gable end adjacent to the right, in line with the rear elevation of the left section, connects via a rear lean-to to a long rear right return wing, the left side of which is red and grey brick in header bond. A datestone to the right gable end records 1740.

Interior details, partially inspected, reveal considerable timber framing. The beam forming the left side of the cross-wing is hollow-chamfered to the right only and morticed for a large stud towards front and rear. A chamfered cross-beam set to the front of the centre of the cross-wing marks the division with the former hall. Broad close-set joists run across, with a pair towards the left side of the wing morticed for a partition (right side of the former cross-passage) with a pair of doorways flanking the cross-beam. To the right of these doorways, the cross-beam is morticed for a partition with a doorway to the right end of it. Later joists surround the stack in the right hall bay. A bevelled cross-beam sits to the left of the stack, and two chamfered axial beams and bevelled joists serve the former left hall bay. Bevelled axial joists appear in the left end bay.

Historical tradition states the building was constructed around 1514 and was licensed as an ale-house in 1540. The first floor of the central section is said to have served as a Court House in the late 17th and 18th centuries.