The former King's Arms Inn

The former King's Arms Inn

This is a former longhouse that was redeveloped as an inn and now comprises two houses. It probably dates to the early 17th century in origin, with significant alteration probably around 1800, perhaps 1812, and further alterations in 2003.

The building is constructed mainly of coursed local sandstone rubble, but includes some early 19th-century brickwork. Some sections are rendered. The roofs are of pan tile.

The plan follows a longhouse arrangement. The rebuilt and enlarged byre-end, probably dating to around 1812, now forms The Old Kings Head, with its staircase occupying the site of the original hearth passage. The former domestic end of the longhouse now forms Kings Head Cottage, which is of two bays and was widened, probably in the late 18th century, on the north side to double depth.

The south elevation borders the churchyard and was the original front elevation to the longhouse. Kings Head Cottage forms two low, broad bays at the west end of the range. The windows are low and broad beneath timber lintels, with vertical sliding sashes of renewed timber, each sash divided into a row of four panes; the ground floor windows are slightly wider. The next two bays eastwards form The Old Kings Head, the rebuilt byre end, which is of two tall storeys and is also rendered. The original main entrance to the longhouse, to the cross passage to the rear of the main hearth, is now reduced to a sash window. To the right is a large tripartite sash window protected with a set of 19th-century iron railings. Both windows have timber lintels. The western of the two first floor windows is slightly wider than the eastern; both have late 20th-century timber sashes. The western gable of The Old Kings Head is raised and coped and has an 18th-century shaped kneeler. The eastern end of the house is marked by a broad, four-flue chimney stack that retains 19th-century brickwork to its lower portion. The two bays to the east of this ridge stack form Willowdene, a separate property that is not included in the listing.

The west gable of Kings Head Cottage is not rendered and is built of roughly coursed, pale coloured rubble stone. It retains evidence of two small blocked windows to the first floor and a rough vertical joint marking the ground floor widening to the north. The single window is reconfigured from a former doorway. Render from the north elevation is partly carried around the corner to imitate quoining. The gable is raised and coped and has renewed kneelers. The two gable stacks, which survived in 1982, have been lost.

The west gable of The Old Kings Head is exposed above the roof line of Kings Head Cottage. It is brick-built and stone-quoined and has a projecting chimney stack rising from the ridge of the cottage, serving the main hearth in the former domestic end. There is a single opening: a small attic window with modern joinery.

The north elevation is the current front elevation. The north elevation of Kings Head Cottage is mainly single storey, rendered and blind except for a single doorway enlarged from an earlier window. Rising above the eastern bay of the original longhouse is a large, weatherboarded dormer under a cat-slide roof.

The Old Kings Head is not rendered. It has a low doorway to the west and a small projection for an outside toilet to the east. Between these is a large tripartite sash window and a small, low sash window. Below the tripartite window is an opening to the cellar. There are two sash windows to the first floor, that above the door being very narrow. All of the window joinery post-dates 1982.

Interior

Kings Head Cottage retains the upper portions of one pair of cruck blades, with evidence that the upper portions of a second pair are embedded in an internal wall. High-set collar or saddle pieces for both cruck pairs are expected to survive concealed within the roof space. On the ground floor, the two rooms which formed the domestic end of the original longhouse retain beamed ceilings supporting the early floorboards of the upper floor. The main beam in the eastern room is chamfered, the chamfers finishing with a step and runout stop typical of the early 17th century. A recess in the wall marks the former access to the original cross passage now part of The Old Kings Head. An 18th-century, corner-set cast iron fireplace in the current entrance hall is considered to be original, although now disused as the chimney has been removed.

The Old Kings Head retains an 18th or early 19th-century six-panelled door to the cellar sited within the former cross passage to the longhouse. Other internal doors, although also generally six-panelled, appear to be later. On the first floor, at the head of the stairs, there is an internal window for borrowed light featuring diagonal slats reminiscent of Chinese designs by Chippendale. The two first floor bedrooms each retain hob grates set beneath moulded mantle shelves flanked by built-in cupboards. The roof structure is of hewn timbers with staggered purlins pegged to the principal rafters.