Former Rose and Crown Public House

Former Rose and Crown Public House

This former public house on the south side of High Street in Brenchley dates from the 17th century, with alterations made in the early 18th and early 19th centuries. It is a Grade II listed building of group value.

The building is of framed construction with a front elevation that is underbuilt in brick at ground floor level, tile-hung above and painted white. It has a peg-tile roof and brick chimney stacks. The structure is two storeys with an attic and faces north towards the High Street.

The building is L-shaped in plan and adjoins the Bournes shop range to the east. The main range was originally three rooms wide, though it is now two rooms wide. The two right-hand (western) rooms were formerly heated by back-to-back fireplaces in an axial stack, with a lobby entrance between them. The left-hand room is probably a later rebuilding or addition and was originally unheated. A rear right wing is heated from an end stack, with a two-span roof over the service block. The roof construction suggests the main range attic was designed for storage, possibly with a loft door at the right end.

In approximately the early 18th century, the house was re-windowed and a winder stair to the rear was probably added at this time. Early 19th-century additions include three canted ground floor bay windows, with two to the left of the porch converted to doors and one to the right remaining as a window with a sixteen-pane sash flanked by eight-pane outer sashes. An early 19th-century twelve-pane sash is present to the ground floor right. The front door with its gabled porch hood dates to the 20th century but may incorporate an 18th- or early 19th-century hood.

The building has an asymmetrical four-window front with the roof half-hipped at the right end. A chimney stack sits at the left end at the junction with the Bournes shop range, with an axial stack to the right of centre.

The first floor windows are early 18th-century two- and three-light casements with bead-moulded mullions on the inner face. They retain original window furniture characteristic of the parish and leaded panes, some of which are original. Two similarly-glazed hipped roof attic dormers are present. The right return has some 18th-century windows with leaded panes, some fitted with quadrant catches. A 19th-century panelled door provides access to the wing.

Interior features are significant. The two left-hand ground floor rooms have exposed ceiling beams. The chamfered sole plate of the centre room does not extend into the left-hand room. The right-hand ground floor room and the wing contain some re-used ceiling beams and wall-framing timbers. The main block frame preserves wall posts with jowled heads.

Above the two right-hand rooms, the roof is constructed with a tie beam and clasped purlin, featuring remarkably steeply-cambered collars shaped like an inverted U. One collar has a rough off-centre hole that appears to align with a former timber wheel, fixed partly in the axial stack, possibly used as a lifting mechanism for goods pulled through a first floor opening.

The exterior of this building is very important to the character of Brenchley and it contains interesting interior features.