The Royal Oak

The Royal Oak is an inn dating back to the late medieval period, with significant alterations and additions in the 17th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The building is constructed of rubble stone, whitewashed on the north and east fronts, rendered on the west, and with a single Roman tile roof in the courtyard. It originated as a hall house, with additional floors inserted later. In the 17th century, it was extended to form an L-shaped plan; this wing was again extended or rebuilt in the 19th century and a single-storey wing added to the right end of the original building, creating a U-shaped layout.

The building is mainly two storeys high, with some former attic space and cellars. The left-hand range has a gable facing the street with a late 19th or 20th-century casement window at first floor, above a small canted bay with a pent roof. The courtyard return has sash windows at each level, the upper halves with glazing bars, a deep-set door, and three-pane wood casement windows at each level. The left return of this wing features a large external brick chimney stack, and a twin-gabled unit with a two-light casement and a blocked window to the right gable. The return front to the courtyard has a cross-gable off-centre, with a three-light casement and a small sash above a lean-to glazed enclosure containing a doorway. The right return wing has various plank doors, a flush loading door in a dormer, and a gable facing the road. All gables to the courtyard have applied timberwork imitating close-stud framework. A chimney stack is located to the right gable of the original building, and to the back gable of the service wing.

The rear of the building has a cross-gable with a blocked opening, and a three-light and two two-light wood casement windows, two of which have glazing bars. The interior, as assessed by a survey by Linda Hall, includes a bressumer fire with stone cheeks featuring a 1674 date carved into a plaster overmantel, and some chamfered beams. The centre of the original block also features chamfered beams with deep chamfers. The roof of the main range has smoke-blackened timbers; one truss is arch-braced, carries one row of purlins, and a diagonal ridge, with one surviving wind brace, chamfered. The purlins are also chamfered with stepped stops, and the principal rafters are chamfered above the collar. The plan of the building has been substantially modified, and the original hall range appears to have had a stack inserted and subsequently removed, transforming the area into a cross-passage, two- or three-room plan.