Barakel And Riddaway'S Stores

House and shop, formerly an inn. Early 16th century with later 16th and 17th century improvements.

The building is constructed of plastered cob on rubble footings, with a slate-hung end wall. The chimneys are cob and stone rubble topped with 19th and 20th century brick. The roof is thatched with a half-hip to the left (west) end.

The building follows a much-altered 3-room-and-through-passage plan facing south. The left (western) end room is probably a 17th century addition and is now occupied by Riddaway's Stores on the ground floor with a 20th century extension to the rear. The centre room was originally the service end and the right (eastern) end room was the former hall. The hall has an axial stack backing onto the passage, while the central room has an axial stack in its former end wall. The building is 2 storeys.

The irregular 4-window front incorporates a variety of window types. The main doorway, containing a late 19th century double 4-panel door with a large blocked overlight, is set right of centre. It is flanked by a 20-pane sash to the right and a 16-pane sash to the left, the latter set within a partly-blocked larger embrasure. At the left end is a 20th century glazed shop window bay including a door, sheltered under a monopitch corrugated iron roof. The first floor has four 2-light casements, with the thatch eaves lifting slightly over the right three. The left end wall is slate-hung with slates nailed directly into the cob, and features a single 19th century casement with glazing bars on each floor. This wall is founded on a natural rock plinth.

The interior demonstrates a complex and long structural history. The oldest part is the early 16th century roof over the right (eastern) end, the former hall, which includes one jointed cruck truss side-pegged with slip tenon and arch-braced with an unusually steeply cambered collar. The roofspace is inaccessible but can be viewed from the adjoining Kings Arms Inn to be smoke-blackened, indicating that the hall was originally open to the roof and heated by an open hearth fire. Another side-pegged jointed cruck over the central room, the former service room, has a straight collar and is clean, probably dating to mid or late 16th century. The hall was floored around the same time with a 4-panel intersecting beam ceiling with chamfered edges. Surviving from the hall to the passage is half a 16th century oak plank-and-muntin screen with chamfered muntins showing worn probably roll stops. In the late 17th century a large cob fireplace was built backing onto the passage, with a large oak lintel plainly finished resting on oak pads on top of oak posts used as jambs. The section of 16th century screen removed to build the fireplace has been reused in a first floor partition. In the former service room the fireplace is blocked and no beams are exposed. The left end room shows no exposed beams, with only the base of plain principals visible above, suggesting this room was probably added in the 18th century. The thin cob party wall between Barakel and the Kings Arms is at the upper end of the hall and probably dates to the 16th or 17th century.

The building stands uphill on Bow's central crossroads, with the western slate-hung end projecting into the main street overlooking the wider section formerly serving as the market place. The roads have apparently worn down over time, exposing natural stone and enhancing the height of the building. It possesses immense townscape value.

The building is recorded as having been an inn in the 17th century, famously visited by Charles II in 1643.