Bull Hotel

Bull Hotel

This is a large gabled inn of three storeys with lower rear ranges partly enclosing a courtyard. The building has an irregular plan with plain brick chimneys and comprises a triple-gabled primary block with a large central stack and earlier timber-framed origins. Adjoining this to the left is a late 17th-century brick addition with a shaped gable. Slate roofs cover throughout.

The main section has a ground floor of rough-dressed lime and sandstone with timber-framed upper storeys, those of the outer bays tile-hung. The central bay is advanced and features four stone steps up to a porch entrance with a moulded wooden cornice and recessed fielded panelled door. Crenellated stone brattishing runs above, marking the termination of the stone ground floor. Above the entrance, on the first floor, is a large wrap-around glazed bay, with a five-light mullioned and transomed window to the front and cross-windows to the returns. The second floor is jettied and has expressed decorative timber framing with a similar gable. This work is mostly late 19th century, though it incorporates some primary strapwork elements; three-light leaded casement windows and decorative bargeboards to deep verges are present. The outer bays have tripartite late Georgian sash windows to the ground and first floors, with twelve-pane unhorned central sections and narrow flanking four-pane sections; those to the ground floor have segmental rough-dressed relieving arches. The second floor has a single nine-pane sash to each bay. A whitened rubble side elevation (right) features asymmetrical windows including sashes, casements and a large segmentally-arched three-light leaded window to the stairwell.

The 17th-century adjoining wing is of brown brick with sandstone quoining on a chamfered limestone plinth. The shaped and kneelered gable has stone ball finials. The upper gable is plastered and carries the painted inscription "Bull Hotel". Three plain sashes to the ground and first floors are present, that to the right on the ground floor formerly serving as an entrance. These have projecting stone sills and flat stone arches. In the centre, above those to the ground floor, is an inset sandstone plaque with weathered inscription dated 1666 ELL. The first floor windows have a continuous iron balcony with simple decorative iron balustrade. A large four-light mullioned and transomed window to the second floor has a bracketed wooden label and balcony as before, with plain modern glazing. A projecting lateral chimney appears on the side left elevation, with further sash windows and a leaded wooden mullioned window facing Park Street, an early 20th-century replacement.

Set back and adjoining this wing to the left is a covered brick gateway block with slated roof. This has an open lower storey forming a tunnel entrance through to the inn's rear courtyard. A wooden cross-window with plain glazing is positioned above the entrance.

The rear of the main section has three gables of whitened rubble; that to the brick wing has its brickwork exposed and features a projecting end chimney with an offset dentil-course. An 18th-century storeyed block with a former tunnel entrance adjoins the rear of the primary block to the left; windows include a sixteen-pane late 18th-century unhorned sash. Adjoining this to the rear is a later L-shaped range with four early 20th-century garage insertions to its main face. Modern single-storey additions extend to the rear of the main sections.

Interior

The interior layout has been altered in the 20th century with the removal of partitions to the main ground-floor bar area. An old boarded floor survives in the left-hand section of the present public bar, in the primary block, with rough chamfered main lateral beams. To the rear of the right-hand gabled section is a fine full-height narrow well stair of second quarter 17th-century date. This features a moulded rail and strapwork relief carving to broad strings; square newel posts with relief-carved glove motifs, that to the lower flight carrying additional S-carved decoration. The newels have rounded cappings, though one surviving geometric pendant on the lower flight suggests that further pendants and geometric finials were originally present, as one would expect. The stair has flat carved shaped balusters. In a modern rear addition is a well with circular rubble parapet wall, formerly external within the courtyard and presumably belonging to the primary period. In a first-floor bedroom, evidence of an arch-braced collar truss roof with cusped windbracing can be seen, though it is now wall-papered over.

The 17th-century brick wing contains a good late 17th-century oak dogleg staircase rising through to the second floor, featuring turned balusters and square flat-capped newels with 20th-century ball finials. What originally served as a large front parlour and a smaller rear parlour now form a large L-shaped dining room. The walls to both are lined with late 17th-century large-field panelling, with fielded panels in polished oak; panelled shutters and reveals and associated window seats are present. Each of the former rooms has a contemporary bolection-moulded stone fireplace, now with a modern paint finish.