The former Pheasant Public House

The Former Pheasant Public House

A two-bay timber-framed cottage with wattle and daub infill dating from the late 16th or early 17th century, now substantially extended and converted to a public house. The building retains its original brick stack. The external walls are now of painted brick with a modern clay tile roof.

The original cottage core comprises two bays with a central stack. The stair probably originally ran alongside the stack to the south, providing access to the upper floor of the western bay. There appears to have been no first-floor communication between the bays initially, suggesting the eastern bay may not have been floored over originally.

The building has been substantially extended over time. A 19th-century extension to the east now forms an enlarged bar area. Mid-20th-century additions include a single-storey extension to the west and a cross-wing behind containing staff accommodation. These have been largely absorbed into a large single-storey dining and kitchen block of late 20th-century date extending the full width of the building to the rear. The principal interest of the building resides in its 16th and 17th-century core and the 18th-century adaptations made to it. The 19th-century extension is of secondary interest; the mid-20th-century additions, though competently executed, make no substantial contribution, while the late 20th-century rear additions make none.

The exterior shows the original cottage forming the middle section of the long north-facing range. The external brickwork is thickly painted and heavily patched, but appears no earlier than the 19th century. The original entrance location is unknown. There are now two doorways giving access to the bar and kitchen respectively, and two square window openings, the left containing modern timber casements and the right now blocked. Two dormers—one large, one small—light the first-floor rooms, and a tall brick stack protrudes from the front roof slope.

To the left, a change in brickwork marks the join with the 19th-century extension, which comprises a single bay with a three-light segment-headed window. The mid-20th-century extension beyond has a canted bay window and a brick end stack. A single pitched roof covers all three phases, the uneven roofline of the right-hand bays indicating the earlier structure. The mid-20th-century accommodation range on the far right has a lower hipped roof with a broad ridge stack. To the rear, the hip-roofed mid-20th-century cross-wing is now engulfed by the low dining room and kitchen extensions of the late 20th century.

Both ground-floor rooms in the original cottage have low, uneven plaster ceilings supported by heavy chamfered spine beams. Both rooms originally had fireplaces; that in the western room (kitchen) has been blocked up, but that in the eastern room (bar) survives with a timber bressumer and the remains of an oven recess. The east end wall has been cut through to enlarge the bar area, exposing a cross-beam whose underside displays empty mortises and holes relating to lost framing studs and infill. The north wall has also been cut through to give access to the dining room. The modern stair, contained within the accommodation wing to the west, ascends to the first floor, where much of the original frame is visible.

In the eastern bay, the front and rear wall plates and their supporting braces are exposed, as is the central truss with principal rafters, collar, studwork and a heavily cranked tie beam supported by one surviving curved brace. This truss appears originally to have been completely closed, with the present doorway and its two-panel raised door having been cut through in the 18th century. The roof is ceiled at the level of the purlins, whose curved wind-braces are exposed in the eastern bay. The framing in the two end gables is partly visible from the roof voids at either end.

The mid-20th-century extensions to east and west contain fireplaces with simple timber surrounds. There are no other features of note.