The Ancient Ram Inn

THE ANCIENT RAM INN

An inn of late medieval origin, substantially remodelled in the mid to late 16th century, located at Potters Pond, Wotton-under-Edge. The building is constructed of rendered limestone rubble with timber-framed rubble walls, roofed with stone slate. Stone chimney stacks with 19th-century brick flues rise from the right gable end and ridge; a brick stack has been inserted to the left.

The original plan form, though now unclear, probably followed the standard three-unit arrangement with a through passage dividing the hall from the service end to the left. The 16th-century remodelling included insertion of an axial stack against the through passage. A rectangular-plan outbuilding, probably of late 18th or early 19th-century date, is attached to the left (east) side. A late 18th or early 19th-century rear wing creates an overall L-shaped plan. The building stands two storeys high.

The front elevation facing the road features a chamfered timber lintel over a 16th-century studded plank door set within a chamfered wood surround with a depressed four-centred arch. Above the door to the left is a late 16th or 17th-century wood-mullioned window with ovolo moulding and four lights. To the right, a two-light window of 17th-century origin, though later reworked, sits above an 18th-century three-light wood-mullioned window with shutter hinges and a late 16th or 17th-century moulded timber lintel. The right-hand bay displays a jettied first-floor timber-framed gable with close studding and arch bracing to jowled corner posts.

The rear elevation contains timber lintels over 19th and 20th-century windows, including a hipped casement with six-over-six-pane sashes. A two-storey rear wing, with later one-storey extension, features 19th and 20th-century casements and a plank loft door.

Internally, the roof structure preserves a late medieval collar-truss design. The original tenoned collars have been sawn out and replaced by higher collars. The roof incorporates a threaded ridge purlin and side purlins with overlapping tenons and soffit spurs, braced with two tiers of windbracing. The roof has been cleaned, with no traces of the smoke blackening characteristic of medieval open halls. The hall ceiling displays chamfered joists of early form and moulded beams with ogee, hollow and ovolo mouldings. A complex building history is indicated by morticing for joists present in both end beams. An open fireplace retains stop-chamfered stone jambs beneath a 20th-century timber lintel. A 19th-century winder stair stands to the rear of the main axial stack, with late 16th-century panelling facing into the hall. A narrow beam to the left of the hall stack bears a chamfered head from the original hall door, with masons' mitres to the chamfered jamb. Stop-chamfered beams appear in the service room to the left. The first floor contains three chambers with chamfered beams; the parlour to the right has windbracing to its timber-framed gable end. Doors of 17th, 18th and 19th-century date remain in situ. The rear wing features collar trusses with truncated tiebeams. The left-hand (east) extension has a roof taken from a 16th-century barn.

The absence of smoke blackening on the late medieval trusses and other features suggest this property may have originally functioned as a first-floor hall. Its proximity to the church raises the possibility of a former use as a church house. Tenter hooks present within the building, together with documentary evidence linking it to a series of wool merchants from the 16th century, attest to its significance in the local wool trade. The property is referred to in a deed of 1820 as The Ram. Deeds dating from 1350 are held in Gloucestershire Record Office, references DDl193/16/1-2.