The Bell Public House

The Bell Public House is a 15th-century inn that originally functioned as a two-bay open hall house. A service end ceiling was added, and a chimney stack was inserted in the late 16th or early 17th century. The building was refronted in brick around 1798, coinciding with the addition of stabling, and features L-shaped additions from the mid-18th century, which now form the present front but were originally the rear of the structure. The street-facing side is made of mid-19th century red brick with grey headers, while the right side is painted. The building has a slate roof with pierced bargeboards and stands two stories tall with three windows. The left side bay projects, and the windows, which were originally sashes, include a tripartite window on the left but have been replaced with 20th-century aluminium frames. The 15th-century timber-framed rear range is clad in weatherboarding on one gable end and painted brick on the other, with the rear constructed of red brick with grey headers in English bond. The roof has been renewed with tiles and features two brick chimneystacks. This section also has two stories and four windows, with 20th-century aluminium-framed sashes in original cambered surrounds. A late 18th-century panelled door with a cambered head is present.

At each end of the building are early 19th-century single-story brick wings; one was formerly stables with an asbestos-sheeted roof, and the other serves as a service area with a tiled roof. The interior boasts a fine 15th-century moulded octagonal crown post with four head braces and collars, arched braces at the ends of the former open hall, and remnants of wattle and daub. The first-floor room beneath the crown post features a chamfered arched tie beam with a plain spandrel on one side, with part of the other side missing. The other end room has arched down braces and mid-19th-century plank panelling with beading, along with old oak floorboards. The first floor contains a series of early to mid-19th-century four-panelled doors. The ground floor retains late 16th or early 17th-century chamfered ceiling beams below the former open hall, and the restaurant area has exposed ceiling beams of square profile, likely the original 15th-century beams. There is also a stone cellar with slate shelves. Historically, in 1853, the Hartlake disaster occurred nearby when a bridge collapsed, resulting in the deaths of 35 people; the inquest was held in the pub, and the stables were used as a morgue.