White Hart Hotel

The White Hart Hotel is an inn, now operating as a hotel and public house, with origins in the late 16th century. Subsequent ranges were built in the mid-18th century, and further rebuilding occurred in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with a further south range added in the early 19th century. The building is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, and has slate roofs, including stone slates to the south range. It features a courtyard plan.

The west entrance range has a central, raised portico with paired Doric columns supporting an entablature, and a six-panel door. It contains early 19th-century six-over-six sash windows with architraves, with smaller sashes at the right-hand end set within timber lintels; a late 16th-century semi-basement window with reserved chamfers is also present. To the right is a single-storey, three-window range with six-over-six sashes, and a parapeted, one-window end range rendered in stucco with a cornice. The five-window north range incorporates a late 16th-century semi-basement and features a segmental-arched courtyard entrance with a chamfered ashlar surround and double boarded doors. Three-bay windows are positioned on either side of a moulded ashlar stack; a semi-basement window has a three-light ovolo-moulded stone mullion, and a late 16th-century reserved chamfered stone window is located to the right. Two mid-19th-century hipped casement dormers are also present. The south elevation has gables flanking a central, three-light canted bay, along with a single window to the left and three windows on the first floor, all with six-over-six sashes. A wide courtyard entrance is positioned to the right.

The courtyard’s east elevation displays mid-18th-century sashes with timber lintels and exposed boxes. A central doorway has a Sun Insurance Company fire sign affixed to an oak lintel. The north range has horizontal sliding sashes on the first floor and late 18th-century sashes on the ground floor, along with hipped dormers.

The interior features a 16th-century stone winder staircase in the north range’s semi-basement, returning at the east end, with chamfered stone posts supporting lateral beams, and segmental vaults at each end. A mid-18th-century open-well staircase is present, with turned balusters, a moulded rail, and panelled dado. The first floor includes an 18th-century stone fireplace surround with small cast-iron grates, and the roof has been renewed. The east range has chamfered axial beams and stone fireplace surrounds. The west range features early 19th-century stone fireplaces with hob grates. The 19th-century south range incorporates a collar truss roof with tenoned purlins and lapped collars.

Historical records indicate a reference to the Hart in the Guild Steward's Book of 1659 and that the late 17th-century semi-basement connects with numbers 19 and 20 The Green. This lower level was rebuilt above in the late 18th century.