The London Inn

THE LONDON INN, MOLLAND

A house and adjoining outbuildings, now functioning as a public house. The main structure dates from circa 1700, with significant enlargement in the late 18th century and more extensive additions in the mid to late 19th century. Mid to late 20th-century internal alterations have been made.

The original house features a random stone rubble ground floor with rendered cob first floor and rendered gable ends. The gable-ended roof is covered in scantle slate. The various additions are constructed of coursed stone rubble with some red brick window and door heads, also with gable-ended scantle-slate roofs. A lean-to porch is covered in corrugated iron. The chimneys have been rebuilt in red brick.

The circa 1700 house was oriented facing south with a plan consisting of a larger principal room to the left and a smaller room (possibly formerly unheated) to the right. Each end featured integral axial stacks, with a dog-leg stair positioned to the rear of the principal left-hand room stack. A probably late 18th-century continuous lean-to outshut occupies the rear, serving as the present kitchen. Two flanking 19th-century additions include an outbuilding to the right and a large lean-to porch to the left. Further mid to late 19th-century work added, set back to the left, a probable former outbuilding with gable end to front, integral end stack to rear, and a former stable adjoining to its left. The building stands as a 2-storey house with a 1-storey outbuilding and loft to the right, other 1-storey outbuildings, and a 2-storey former stable.

The house front presents a nearly symmetrical arrangement of three windows, fitted with late 19th or early 20th-century 2-light wooden casements. A probably early 20th-century boarded door with two glazed lights sits between the first and second windows from the right. A blocked doorway to the right of this door is visible as straight joints. The right-hand outbuilding has a boarded door to the front, with its gable end featuring a loft doorway with wooden lintel and two ground-floor boarded doors topped with segmental brick heads. The former outbuilding set back to the left displays a 2-light segmental-headed wooden casement to the left and a reused probably 18th-century boarded door to the right, fitted with a wooden lintel. Against the left-hand end of the house stands a porch with 20th-century half-glazed doors to front and side. The former stable adjoining to the left features a probably 20th-century 3-light wooden casement on the first floor (with a formerly visible loft doorway now showing straight joints). The ground floor contains a central late 19th-century 2-light segmental-headed wooden casement and flanking segmental-headed boarded doors with glazed panels; all ground-floor openings have brick heads with raised keystones. The left-hand gable end displays a 19th-century 2-light wooden casement.

The interior preserves a largely complete scheme from circa 1700. The principal left-hand ground-floor room features an old plastered ceiling and an old open fireplace with stone jambs and chamfered wooden lintels with run-out stops. A small 18th-century salt cupboard is set in the wall to the left of the fireplace, fitted with H-hinges. A probably 18th-century curved settle stands to the right of the fireplace, with an old bench along the front wall. A circa 1700 dog-leg stair is positioned to the rear of the fireplace. A pair of circa 1700 doors, each with six scratch-moulded panels and large shaped openings in the top panels (possibly designed to create draught for the fire), connects the ground-floor rooms and links the left-hand ground-floor room to the rear lean-to. The right-hand ground-floor room contains a fireplace fitted with a 19th-century cast-iron grate and ceramic-tiled reveals and surround. An old cupboard to the right has a pair of 2-panelled doors with H-hinges, and a window seat is present. First-floor rooms retain old oak floorboards and old boarded doors. The roof structure includes a five-bay roof of circa 1700 and a four-bay roof over the lean-to, both featuring staggered purlins. An old boarded door (possibly a former back door) between the rear lean-to and the present bar has wide planks and old strap hinges. A reused 17th-century doorway in the left-hand room of the bar consists of a pegged chamfered Tudor-arched frame with scratch-moulded sides; this doorway was brought from Ford Cottage in the 1960s. A probably 19th-century fireplace at the rear of the outbuilding, with a wooden lintel, was blocked in the 20th century.