White Hart Hotel

The White Hart Hotel is a 16th-century timber frame structure that was refronted in 1725, as indicated by the date on the rainwater heads. The ground floor has been remodeled, and the entire building was refaced in the 20th century. It features ashlar stonework in a local Baroque style, topped with a gabled slate roof and three stone stacks. The hotel stands three storeys high with six bays, where the central two bays are recessed. It has a moulded cornice and rusticated quoins at the top floor sill level. The windows have moulded and eared architraves with projecting keystones, brackets below, and aprons above the top floor windows. All windows are sash style without glazing bars. A three-light window has replaced the central carriage arch, and the inner window opening to the left-hand bay has been lengthened to create a doorway. A fine painted hotel sign is located between the two central first-floor windows.

Inside, despite extensive remodeling, some 16th-century features remain. The northwest room on the first floor has a complete oak panelled scheme with a fluted frieze and some carved ornamental panels. This room also includes a wide stone fireplace with an obtuse angled head, hollow spandrels, and stop-moulded jambs. There are two similar fireplaces on the ground floor. At the rear, there is a stone-tiled, rubble stone range with a jettied upper storey that has been stuccoed, hiding the timber framing. The White Hart is an impressive example of Baroque style as interpreted by local masons, influenced by Gibbs' Ditchley Park.