Garden Farmhouse

Garden Farmhouse, Fotheringhay

A substantial building on Main Street with a complex history as a former inn, now divided into a house, commercial premises and outbuildings. Originally built in the mid or late 15th century for Edward IV, it was reconstructed and extended during the 18th century and again in the mid and late 19th century.

The building is constructed from squared coursed limestone with a Collyweston slate roof. It probably originally had a courtyard plan, now reduced to a main range with a central carriage arch and wings projecting to both front and rear on the left and right sides. It stands two storeys tall.

The main front is a five-window range dominated by a central carriage arch. To the left of this arch, the former hall range contains two 2-light windows with square heads and cinquefoiled lights beneath hood moulds, probably restored in the 19th century. A similar 2-light window sits above the carriage arch, with armorial label stops. The 19th-century windows to the right of the arch include single-light openings with cinquefoiled lights, a 2-light window on the first floor at the far right, and a four-light window with cinquefoiled lights and a transom on the ground floor at the far right.

The central carriage arch is particularly notable, featuring a moulded stone surround with a four-centred arch head, traceried spandrels and carved label stops. Above this runs a cusped frieze decorated with shields. Two-stage ashlar buttresses flank the archway, with an ashlar corner buttress featuring pyramid coping to the far right. An ashlar gable parapet to the right incorporates a carved kneeler and a 19th-century brick and stone stack at its apex.

The 15th-century range projecting to the left was reconstructed as a farm building in the 19th century. Its gable contains a four-centred arch doorway (now blocked) with two further blocked square-head openings to its left. The return wall has a similar blocked doorway and square-head opening.

The elevation to the right of the main front is predominantly 19th-century work, though a 15th-century gable end survives to the left. A projecting flue at the gable centre has two blocked single-light windows with cinquefoiled lights to its left. A 19th-century porch sits to the left of centre, with two projecting 19th-century wings to the centre and right, featuring canted bay windows. All other windows on this face are 19th-century with stone surrounds.

The elevation to the left of the main front contains a 19th-century cart entrance flanked by pitch holes and slit vents.

The rear elevation features a central carriage arch with a wood lintel and close-studded timber-framed first floor above. A central 19th-century casement window and a 19th-century doorway with a four-centred arch head sit to the right of the arch. The projecting wing to the right is predominantly 19th-century with a cart entrance beneath a wood lintel. The range to the left is chiefly 19th-century with a projecting gable and casement windows in stone surrounds.

The interior contains an entrance hall to the right of the main front with a 19th-century staircase. The room to the left of the entrance features a large fireplace with a four-centred ogee and hollow-moulded head, with an intersecting ceiling beam and collar above.

The roof structure of the hall range to the left of the main front is notable for its central collar truss with roll and hollow mouldings, two cranked struts, one tier of butt-purlins and wind braces. A further truss has a cambered tie beam, struts to the collar and wind braces.

The building was formerly known as the New Inn and served Fotheringhay Castle. In the 19th century it was part of Lord Overstone's estate and was recorded as a farmhouse.