The Guggle

This is a mid-17th century former public house, originally known as The Horse and Groom, which has been converted into a house in a row. The property is located in Northleach with West End, and includes a room called 'The Guggle'. The building is constructed of coursed squared and dressed limestone, with a brick facade raised in height above the upper floor windows. The roof is slate, with stone slate covering the portion of 'The Guggle’ on the left.

The house has a rectangular plan, with 'The Guggle' set back to the left. The house itself is two storeys high with a two-window front, featuring two and three-light wood casement windows. A part-glazed door is located on the right-hand side. 'The Guggle' is a single-storey structure, featuring a plank door leading to a passage on the right, and a single-light window with horizontal glazing bars.

Inside the house, a spine beam is visible, along with a stone fire surround that likely originally had a keystone (now removed). A doorway to the right of the fireplace leads to a stone spiral staircase descending to a cellar with a stone barrel vault. A semi-circular stone trough is set in the wall above floor level. A blocked window is present at the rear, and a former barrel chute, now blocked, is situated below the front wall of the house. A cupboard beneath a window in the same room is dated and initialled 'W.W. 1777'.

The interior of 'The Guggle' is a small room roughly 2 metres square, featuring a small 19th-century firegrate opposite the entrance from the passage. Above the fireplace is a faded painting with the inscription "MEET FRIENDLY/DRINK HEARTILY/PAY HONESTLY/PART QUIETLY", depicting a horse, said to be Coronation, a famous racehorse bred near Northleach. Below the inscriptions is a painting depicting three men dressed in early 19th-century fashion playing cards. These paintings are set within a cinquefoil-headed stone surround with two small round-headed niches on either side. A larger cinquefoil-headed niche is located to the right of the fireplace, with two smaller cinquefoil-headed niches to its sides. Two smaller pointed-headed niches flank the doorway. Blind 2-light cinquefoil-headed panels are set low down either side of the door. Small square niches are incorporated into each corner of the room, beneath a domed dressed limestone ceiling with a blind quatrefoil at the centre. The floor is made of red tiles. The building may have originally been the house of a mason, with 'The Guggle' intended to showcase their skills. The garden contains the remnants of two underground passages (now sealed off), reputedly used for stone working.