Oscars

House, possibly an inn, now a shop. Early 16th century with early additions of rear wings; later alterations.

The building has a stucco facade with limestone rubble elsewhere, and a steeply-pitched slate roof with stone coping, moulded kneeler, and brick stack to the right gable end. It is a 3-unit cross-passage plan with 2 rear wings.

The exterior presents 2 storeys with a 4-window range. The first-floor windows are 4/8-pane sashes in forward frames. A late 19th-century shopfront, positioned to the right of centre at ground level, features a moulded fascia with ornate consoles reaching almost to cill-level; 3 plate-glass windows between colonnettes; and a set-back door to the right. To the left of the shopfront is a 6-panel door in a moulded architrave (the original entrance to the cross-passage), flanked by smaller but similar shop windows.

The building stands over a vaulted cellar of 3 equal bays corresponding with the rooms above and the cross-passage. The cellar has a high rubblestone plinth around the north, east (front), and west (rear) sides. A line of columns along the centre have round bevelled capitals below square abaci; the bases are similar. Corresponding half-columns against the wall stand on the plinth without bases. The floor is of Ham Hill stone flags with a runnel along the sides and north end wall, draining into a hole in the north-west corner.

The ground-floor room to the north, possibly the parlour, has a deeply-moulded beam against the north wall, an obscured beam to the south end, and an axial beam to the centre. The central room, the former hall, contains an elaborate framed ceiling of 3 main compartments divided by richly carved axial and wall beams. A beam marks the 4-foot width of the former cross-passage. Evidence of a former fireplace exists in the south wall.

The first floor contains a small stone fireplace with a cambered lintel and sunk spandrels in the north wall; the moulding to the arrises is stopped approximately 1 inch above the floor. The north bay is formed by a tie-beam truss with vertical rods for wattle and daub; the tie-beam has been shaped at its rear end, probably over a former doorway. The second bay has an almost similar truss with carpenters' assembly marks (III) at the apex and 2 rows of trenched purlins, both replaced. Above the present ceiling are wind braces to the front between these trusses and slots for wind braces to the rear. The purlin above is chamfered with step-and-run-out stops to both edges. The third bay, which covers the cross-passage, has replaced purlins. The south roof truss is marked II; it has slots for wind braces, and rod-holes and grooves from a former partition. The fourth bay, to the south, ends at a stone wall with a stack from the former ground-floor fireplace.

The rear wings have collar truss roofs. The southern wing is higher, with carpenters' marks I and II on its two trusses. The collars are halved on and pegged; the purlins rest on those of the main block. The first-floor front wall is 6 inches thick. One exposed panel, approximately 3 feet square and adjacent the central truss, reveals depressed crossed curved braces.