The Red Lion Hotel, Wirksworth, Derbyshire

Summary

Former coaching inn of probable C16 or C17 origins, largely rebuilt and extended to the south in the mid-C18. C19 and C20 alterations and additions.

Description

Former coaching inn of probable C16 or C17 origins, largely rebuilt and extended to the south in the mid-C18. C19 and C20 alterations and additions.

MATERIALS: sections of the west wall and the chimney stack to the west elevation are of coursed carboniferous limestone rubble with millstone grit stone quoins; the other chimney stacks are of brick. Brick walls laid in various bonds including English bond, English garden wall bond, and stretcher bond. The roofs are covered in plain clay tiles, with the lower courses to the west being of limestone slates. The staircase may be of Hopton Wood stone.

PLAN: the three-storey mid-C18 range to the south is arranged as three bays with the central bay forming the carriage entrance, and the assembly room occupying the extent of the first floor. To the rear of this range is the mid-C19 staircase with the three-storey rear (west) wing forming the principal bar area, knocked through to the attached range to the north, with accommodation above. The rear wing to the east comprises two, two-storey lean-tos. Barrel-vaulted cellars extend to the rear.

EXTERIOR: three-storey, three bay principal (south) elevation, with brick chimney stacks to either end of the hipped roof. There is a ground and first floor cill band, and a moulded cornice to the parapet wall and central pediment. The set forward central bay has a round-arched carriageway (incorporating a re-used C17 beam), a Venetian window to the first floor, and a Diocletian window to the second floor. The flanking bays have six-over-six hornless sash windows to the ground and first floor, and three-over-three hornless sash windows to the second floor; all beneath stone wedge lintels. The window arrangement is repeated to the side (east) elevation; the second-floor window is blocked. The rear wing to the west has a pitched roof with gable end brick stacks and to its west elevation is a substantial lateral stone stack with buttressing and a section of coursed rubble stone walling. To the left are single-storey stone additions, with a tall brick ridge stack between, and some rebuilding in brick to the east elevation. Two, two-storey lean-to buildings form the east rear wing.

INTERIOR: features of note include the first-floor assembly room with plaster cornicing and a mid-C18 style stone fireplace at the east end (a replica inserted in 2017); the mid-C18 stone cantilevered staircase with moulded treads to the lower section and a wrought iron balustrade; and C17 ceiling beams to the addition attached to the north of the west wing. There is the potential that further historic fixtures and fittings survive behind later finishes.

History

Wirksworth developed as an important lead mining centre from the Roman period onwards, reaching its peak in the C17 and C18, before going into steady decline in the C19. This, alongside its status as a market town since 1306, meant that Wirksworth was on the packhorse routes from at least the C16 and benefited from being on the turnpiked road between Duffield and Wirksworth (a branch from the Derby to Sheffield turnpike road that was authorised in 1756), and as a consequence several inns were established around the market square.

The Red Lion Hotel, located to the north side of the market square, is first documented as a coaching inn in 1715. However, there is evidence in the surviving stone building fabric to the west elevation, as well as some timber-framing internally, that the building has earlier, possibly C17, or even C16, origins. The building was altered in the C18 and the range that now forms the rear west wing was substantially rebuilt in brick, with stone mullion windows and a Venetian window inserted to its east elevation, and a stone-framed stair window added to its north elevation, with a staircase inserted internally. The building was then extended forward in 1768 with a single-pile, three-storey range of three bays, with a Palladian-style frontage. This remodelling of The Red Lion Hotel appears to have been stimulated by the turnpiking of the road between Wirksworth and Duffield in 1757, and is an example of how improved road communications in the C18 led to an increased demand for accommodation for travellers, including stabling, as well as cultural facilities such as assembly rooms. The Red Lion Hotel also served as the town’s excise office and post office at this time.

The Red Lion Hotel is shown on both a plan of the site dated 1836 and the Wirksworth Tithe Map (1848) in its mid-C18 form as a coaching inn with extensive stabling (which would also have included groom’s quarters) to the rear. The building appears to have undergone some remodelling in the mid-C19, with the insertion of the cantilevered stone staircase behind the 1768 range and the removal of the rear staircase. Much of the partitioning and joinery to the first and second floor of the west rear wing, as well as the insertion of the bay window to its east elevation, also date from this period. The range attached to the north end of the west wing retains some C17 chamfered ceiling beams with scrolls stops and a large three-section stone fireplace, but was partially rebuilt in the C19. The additional single-storey range to the north was built in the mid-C19.

By the mid-C20 the stables had largely been demolished and the road to the immediate west of The Red Lion Hotel created to ease traffic congestion. The principal bar area in the west wing was remodelled with the insertion of the Gothic-style timber ceiling and bar in front of the west stack. There was reported to be a stone mounting block in the yard until the 1990s.

Reasons for Listing

The Red Lion Hotel is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an example of a probable C16 or C17 coaching inn of vernacular construction that was remodelled and extended in the mid-C18;
* for the architectural accomplishment of the principal façade designed in the Palladian-style with good architectural detailing, and the unusual symmetrical arrangement of a central carriage entrance;
* for the retention of its mid-C18 assembly room.

Historic interest:

* for its illustration of how improvements in road communications in the C18 could stimulate the remodelling of an inn to provide accommodation and stabling for travellers, as well as the increasing demand during this period for cultural facilities such as assembly rooms.

External Links

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