Crown Hotel

The Crown Hotel is a hotel that dates from the late 16th century, with a shop front added in the 20th century. It is probably timber-framed, rendered, and colourwashed, topped with a clay pantiled roof featuring a plain gable. The building has a narrow frontage and is two rooms deep, with a central chimney breast and a steeply pitched roof that faces the street. It is connected to adjacent buildings, all of which are part of the Crown Hotel.

The exterior consists of two storeys with an attic and a single wide bay. On the ground floor, there are two casement windows with three and two lights, along with a door to the right. The first floor features a shallow oriel window with one plus five plus one lights, supported by ovolo-mould mullions on three shaped brackets, and covered by a slate lean-to pentice roof. An attic window in the gable has a small two-light leaded casement. At the rear, there is a crosswing, although the south end is obscured by a later building.

Inside, the ground floor has a large transverse beam in the front room, but much of it dates from the 20th century. The rear room, which is at a lower level, has a four-compartment ceiling with 16th-century moulded beams and a square stone fireplace. The roof features high collars and a large square rough butt purlin, and at the rear, there is an arch-braced truss with a hollow-chamfer mould, along with a very heavy purlin and cambered tie. The north wall contains remains of a blocked 16th-century door leading to a four-centred arch.

Historically, the building was constructed in the late 16th century by a Canon who lived in the Canonical House (The Exchequer) on the site of the former Town Hall, which was located in what was then his garden.