Bear and Ragged Staff Inn is a Grade II* listed building in the Vale of White Horse local planning authority area, England. First listed on 6 August 1952. A Early Modern Inn. 9 related planning applications.
Bear and Ragged Staff Inn
- WRENN ID
- dark-stronghold-sienna
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Vale of White Horse
- Constituency
- Oxford West and Abingdon MP: Layla Moran (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 6 August 1952
- Type
- Inn
- Period
- Early Modern
- Address
- Bear and Ragged Staff Inn, Appleton Road, Cumnor, OX2 9QH
- OS grid reference
- SP 459 040
- Coordinates
- 51.73369, -1.33659
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Bear and Ragged Staff Inn is a farmhouse, later adapted as an inn, dating from the early 17th century with earlier origins. It is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with a gabled stone slate roof. Distinctive features include a gable-end stack on the right-hand side, finished with three diagonally-set brick flues, a similar stack with two flues to the rear gabled bay, and a brick stack at the left end. The building is arranged in a U-plan, with two projecting outer wings flanking a central bay.
The main facade is of two storeys and an attic, and features a three-window range with prominent outer wings. The central bay has decoratively-carved and moulded timber lintels above a 20th-century door within a heavy wood frame and an 18th-century wood-mullioned five-light window with leaded glass above a 20th-century three-light casement in a partially blocked opening. The right-hand gable has chamfered timber lintels over similar 18th-century three- and five-light leaded windows, alongside a 20th-century five-light casement. The left-hand gable exhibits a timber lintel over a 17th-century three-light wood-mullioned ovolo-moulded window, and decorative timber lintels over a 17th-century five-light wood-mullioned and transomed ovolo-moulded window with leaded lights, and a 20th-century five-light window. The inner walls of the outer wings have decorative timber lintels over blocked windows, which are above timber lintels over blocked doors. The rear elevation has a mix of 17th-century wood-mullioned windows, and a reset late 16th-century three-light round-headed stone-mullioned window.
Inside, the central hall features a stepped ovolo-moulded beam and a large open fireplace with sunk spandrels to a chamfered wood bressumer. A timber-framed partition with a double ovolo-moulded door architrave separates the hall from a room to the right, which also has a similar beam. This room contains a stone-relief strapwork panel above the fireplace, with a chamfered wood bressumer and hollow-chamfered stone jambs. A timber-framed partition wall divides the hall on the left side, leading to a room with a chamfered ogee-stopped beam and two chamfered doorways to the rear, one of which provides access to a newel staircase. The newel staircase is characterized by straight flights at the top and bottom, with simple turned balusters on a closed string. Upstairs, there are chamfered doorframes within a timber-framed partition, while a large central room displays cyma-moulded beams and another room features a 17th-century plaster cornice. A grille of simple turned balusters serves as a cupboard above a plank door leading to the attic stairs. The interior also retains 17th-century plank doors, some set in segmental-arched, chamfered doorframes. The roof structure employs collar trusses.
Local climate
Bear and Ragged Staff Inn sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 730 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 78% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 69% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 32 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 59% of listed buildings. Of these, 14 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
- Sale history — 4 transactions since 1997
- Related listed building consents — 9 applications
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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