The Former Hare and Hounds Public House

The Former Hare and Hounds Public House

This building is probably a medieval hall house that was improved in the 17th century and was most recently used as a public house.

The core structure is timber-framed, comprising two pairs of substantial cruck blades forming what appears to have been a three-bay medieval building. The roadside elevation and gable walls are constructed in brick, now painted. Plain tile roofs cover the main structure, with brick chimneys. Rear wings are built in red brick with plain tile roofs.

The medieval three-bay core was adapted or raised in height, probably during the 17th century, to provide an upper floor. A brick stack was inserted into the south-western bay to heat the central bay, served by two chimney stacks above the ridge line, the taller of which appears to be a 19th-century addition. The main range was extended to the north-east by a one-and-a-half storey bay in the 19th century and by a single-storey bay in the 20th century. A one-and-a-half storey rear wing dates to the 18th or 19th century, being taller than the original core and flanked by lower gabled bays. Further 20th-century flat-roofed extensions have been added.

The roadside frontage comprises four bays with one-and-a-half storeys; the northernmost added bay is offset from the main elevation with the upper floor clad in plain fascia. The ground-floor window openings are 20th-century with timber casements, obscuring any earlier openings. Wide cambered and segmental arched windows light each bay on either side of the stack. The two inner bays have segmental-headed doorways (one blocked), with 20th-century studded doors flanking a small casement window. The right-hand windows are 20th-century casements. Each first-floor bay has a half-hipped full dormer with boarded cheeks, a tiled roof with corner finials, and a 20th-century three-light timber casement window. The visible section of the south-west gable wall has a tall cambered arched opening adapted as a window.

Inside, the early structure is evident in the cruck trusses visible on the ground floor and in the substantial tie beam marking the north-eastern end of the early building, though parts are obscured by later cladding. The earliest three bays contain worn and in some places reworked tie beams or transverse ceiling beams of successive dates. Above the stack and in the westernmost bay, these have one- to two-inch chamfers with run-out chamfer stops visible in the westernmost bay. Intermediate ceiling beams and most joists are replaced or encased.

The historic central bay is served by a substantial internal brick stack with a square-cut, un-chamfered bressumer above the fireplace opening; the ends of the bressumer are not visible. The ground floor has been largely opened up, removing sections of the original rear wall and gable walls. Surfaces are plastered and painted.

Most of the first floor is boarded over, but a small section of exposed timber framing remains to the rear of the stack. In the central bay there is a 17th or 18th-century door frame with a pintle hinge and a slender scantling timber-framed transverse wall. An exposed section of the substantial transverse beam in the northernmost truss of the historic core has a horizontal slot to its upper face and appears to continue, forming the threshold between the north-eastern rooms.

The roof is constructed of sawn paired rafters with no ridge piece. Where accessible above the north-eastern bay they are numbered from west to east. The south-western bay has a framed purlin roof.

The rear extensions have been heavily modified and extended.