White Lyon House

White Lyon House, Marden High Street (north side)

A timber-framed building of later 15th-century origin, originally a public house, later converted to a house and shop, and subsequently divided into a house pair before being reunified as a single dwelling. The building incorporates additions and alterations spanning the early to mid 16th century, later 16th century, late 16th or early 17th century, and the 19th century.

The main range, standing 1½ storeys, consists of a 15th-century open hall of two roughly equal-length bays with storeyed bays at each end. It is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond, with the right gable end featuring close studding and an underbuilt jetty; exposed timber framing is visible to the first floor of this gable. The roof is half-hipped to the left, with a slightly higher ridge to the right end bay that also half-hips to the right. A projecting red brick gable end stack stands to the left.

An early to mid 16th-century timber-framed rear wing of two bays was added to the left, apparently with a slight internal gap separating it from the main range. A further timber-framed bay, probably dating to somewhat later in the 16th century, was added to the rear on the right, positioned inset from the right gable end and overlapping the right end and right hall bays. A bay of late 16th or early 17th-century date was added to the front of the right end bay, also slightly overlapping the right hall bay. An early 19th-century bay was added to the rear of the left wing.

The right end bay rises to two storeys with a cellar beneath. The rear wings stand two storeys; the front right wing rises to two storeys with a garret above. The front right wing features chequered red and grey brick to its ground floor and tile-hanging to the first floor. The rear right wing exhibits a rear gable-end jetty and first-floor tension braces. Eaves and ridge of the front right wing match the height of the right end bay, with the roof half-hipped to the front and the rear right wing hipped to the rear.

Fenestration is irregular. Two three-light leaded dormers with lean-to roofs light the main range, and a small four-light leaded casement with an ovolo moulding is positioned to the front right wing, with a former shop window at ground-floor level below. The right gable end of the main range features a six-light leaded ovolo-moulded mullion window with diamond subsidiary mullions and two-light frieze windows. A ribbed door with a flat consoled hood opens from the right end of the left hall bay; a boarded door stands under the stack on the left side of the front right wing. Lean-tos are present to the right side of the left wing and the rear of the main range.

A multiple red and grey brick stack marks the junction of the right end bay and front right wing.

The left end and left hall bays were altered in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The interior retains extensive exposed timber framing. The right end of the hall beam is moulded and brattished, with broadly spaced studding beneath it morticed for a bench and a braced partition above. The first floor of the right end bay features a close-studded rear wall, hollow-chamfered wall-plates, a tie-beam and posts, and a cambered hollow-chamfered axial tie-beam with solid-spandrel braces. The rear left wing contains a moulded octagonal crown post on a cambered hollow-chamfered tie-beam with solid-spandrel braces carved on each face with different designs (including a rose and pomegranate). A chamfered inserted axial beam and joists are present in the right hall bay. Brick fireplaces constructed in English bond incorporate wooden bressummers to the right stack. The front right wing displays a chamfered axial beam and joists with shaped jowled posts. The attics to the right end were not inspected.