The Haunch of Venison

The Haunch of Venison

A house, now public house, in a row, dating largely from the mid-15th century, with 18th-century alterations.

The building is constructed of stucco over timber framing with brick infill. The rear elevation is tile-hung, and the building is topped with plain clay tile roofs and brick stacks. The structure is orientated north-south with a roughly square floor plan.

The main elevation to the east is of two bays and three storeys, largely dating from the 18th-century remodelling. A high plinth and brick ground floor marks where the jetty has been underbuilt. The ground floor entrance, just right of centre, is a part-glazed panelled door beneath a moulded cornice running the width of the building. To the left are paired six-over-six windows with thick glazing bars; to the right, a four-by-four multi-paned fixed window. The first floor has two one-over-one flush-framed horned sash windows, and the second floor two two-light casements. Above runs a plat band and parapet with the steeply pitched roof rising behind. The return wall, exposed above the adjacent buildings, is hung in plain clay tile. The 18th-century brick stacks have offsets to the tops. The rear elevation faces St Thomas' churchyard and features overhangs to the first and second floors with tile hanging. Its fenestration is irregular, with timber casements and sashes of various sizes and a large modern flue emerging from the first floor.

The entrance leads into the public bar with a black-and-white quarry tiled floor. A mixture of small-square panelling and matchboarding covers the walls, with part of the timber frame exposed to the front. Heavy jowled posts show the extent of the original ground floor beneath the jetty, now underbuilt. The exposed joists are chamfered with run-outs to the front. The wide fireplace features a chamfered and cranked bressumer with an inbuilt mantelpiece on carved brackets. A late-19th-century panelled overmantel bears an inset carved panel depicting vines, grapes and a haunch of venison. Built-in bench seating with panelled fronts lines the room. To the right is the bar and serving area, and a tiny snug, formerly the ladies' snug, with half-height panelled walls and three pieces of bare attached benches. The panelled bar counter has a pewter top with early 20th-century bar back shelves on a mirrored back. On the bar bench dividing the snug from the serving area is a carved timber elevated arch with seven spirit taps bearing inlaid brass decoration and a brass plate inscribed 'Gravity fed spirit taps fitted by H Neale, Plumber, Salisbury' with gilt decoration and dated 1909. Casks of beer are moved into the cellar from the public bar only; firkins (9 gallon casks) pass through the door left of the servery, but larger barrels require removing the shelf behind the counter and opening up the bar front. No pumps or dispensers are mounted on the counter; handpumps are affixed to the bar back-fitting which incorporates drawers. A second set of eight spirit taps (one missing) is mounted on the bar back.

Behind the public bar, up a short flight of steps within a panelled passage rising over the cellar, is a small room with 18th-century small-square panelling. An internal window opens to the public bar, and the exposed ceiling has heavy-section chamfered beams. The south wall is entirely occupied by a large inglenook fireplace with chamfered uprights (replaced) and an original cambered and chamfered timber bressumer. A bread oven with a later timber door sits within the inglenook. The passage terminates in a probably 16th-century plank door. To the right is a timber half-winder stair beside a two-panelled door to a small room, now lavatories.

The first floor's principal room to the front has chamfered beams and joists with run-out stops, jowled posts and curved braces. Walls are plastered above a mixture of panelling to dado height, with some carved fields and built-in bench seating. The fireplace features a Tudor-style timber surround with additional carved panels probably dating from the 17th century and possibly imported or reused. Doorways have moulded 18th-century surrounds. The exposed timber frame of the wall adjacent to 3 Minster Street (north) bears clear carpenter's marks. A doorway in the formerly external north wall, up two steps to accommodate the floor level change, gives access to the dining room created in the first-floor space of 3 Minster Street (listed separately). This room has exposed close-studded timber framing to internal and external walls and is panelled to dado height with built-in bench seating. The broad 16th-century fireplace has a fireback of 1558 and a hollow-chamfered two-centred-arched bressumer carried on corbelled-out stone uprights with moulded chamfers and high stops, with a shallow stone hearth. The ceiling is divided into compartments by slender mouldings, with foliate bosses at the junctions. The remaining areas accommodate lodgings. The two-bay roof has double-collared tie-beam trusses with two tiers of purlins and curved wind braces.