The Downton Press The White Horse

A late 15th-century open hall with a cross wing, an early 16th-century range to the east, and a substantial rebuilding around 1700, forms this inn and shop. The structure is predominantly timber-framing, now faced with Flemish bond brick and featuring vitrified headers and a tiled roof with brick stacks. The west side presents a 4-bay cross wing, a central hall range with a screens passage, and a 6-bay range to the east.

The front elevation, dating from around 1700, is a two-storey, five-window arrangement. A 19th-century shop front is located to the left of Number 64, with a four-panelled door. To the left of the central range is a tall, six-panelled studded door within a beaded case, accompanied by a porch on Tuscan columns, and two cross windows. The cross wing projecting to the right has a half-glazed door under a flat wooden hood, a blind window to the right, and two plate-glass sashes to the left. A stone plat band runs across the first floor, featuring a cross window, two blind windows, and a French window above the main door, with three 6-pane sashes and another blind window to the right, all with flat arches. Two round-arched niches on the first floor’s left side are occupied by busts of King John and Queen Isabella, likely 18th-century replicas of 13th-century originals. A coved eaves cornice tops the building.

The right return displays three 6-pane sashes and two pairs of plate-glass sashes on the ground floor, with a plat band to the first floor supporting three 6-pane sashes and a blind window. A cross wing projects to the left at the rear, now used for inn services, built in English bond brick with 20th-century windows. A single-storey extension to the left was formerly a slaughterhouse, with a half-hipped roof and segmental-headed openings.

The rear main range includes a tall elliptical-arched opening with a half-glazed door, an elliptical-arched opening with a 20th-century window, three small casements, and a 20th-century door, as well as a gabled dormer to the catslide roof.

Internally, the building retains a screens passage, likely a former horse thoroughfare. The original roof structure remains intact throughout, with a 4-bay roof in the cross wing and screens passage with a tier of clasped purlins and a closed truss featuring cranked tie-beams and arched 'V' queen struts to a cambered collar. The central open hall range, also with a screens passage, has a roof with similar trusses. The east 6-bay range has two tiers of clasped purlins with curved wind braces and varying trusses, including an arch-braced collar truss with fine moulding. A 17th-century inserted floor in the central range features a chamfered beam with step and runout stops. A spiral staircase retains its newel. Four-panelled 19th-century doors are in use.