Seymour Arms Public House

The Seymour Arms is an 1866 public house located in Witham Friary, built for the Duke of Somerset by Hardwick and Co. The building is constructed of coursed local limestone with red brick dressings, and has a hipped clay tile roof with bands of shaped tiles and crested ridge tiles. Brick axial stacks are present. The layout is a double-depth plan featuring a central entrance hall with a servery, a public bar to the left with a hatch to the cellar, a room to the right which likely served as a parlour, private rooms behind, and a short service wing at the rear. A 20th-century lavatory outshut is situated on the north-west side.

The symmetrical south-west front has large 16-pane sash windows within brick surrounds, each with a small keystone above a flat brick arch and stone cills. A central stone pilastered portico supports an entablature, housing flush-panel double doors and a rectangular overlight. A wrought-iron sign, shaped as an ornate scrolled bracket with a small bunch of grapes and a banner inscribed "Seymour Arms," is affixed to the south-east corner. The south-east return is symmetrical with three bays similar to the front, with a set-back wing featuring a half-hipped roof and a large axial stack. The north-west return also has three symmetrical bays, with the right-hand bay blind.

Inside, the central entrance hall has a stone flag floor and a servery with a glazed screen, counter, and serving hatch. The public bar to the left also features a stone floor, simple benches with matchboard backs, a stone chimneypiece with a bracketed shelf, and a serving hatch to the cellar. To the right of the hall is the publican's parlour, containing a fireplace with console brackets to the mantel shelf.

The Seymour Arms is notable as a rare, largely unaltered rural public house, retaining its original interior fittings, and is documented in CAMRA's National Inventory of Pub Interiors of Outstanding Historic Interest.