The North Star Inn public house, Steventon, Oxfordshire

Summary

A public house of C17, C19, C20 and C21 dates.

Description

A public house of C17, C19, C20 and C21 dates. The building stands near to the centre of the village, adjacent to the Causeway, a medieval raised pavement, probably of C14 date, with cobbled stone surface which runs West-East (Grade II*).

MATERIALS & PLAN: the original building is timber framed with brick infill and a tiled roof and is single-storeyed with attic. Later additions have brick walling. The plan is T-shaped with a spinal range running North-South and a C19 western wing housing the function room and entrance passage. At the southern end is a C19 lean-to and urinal at ground-floor level and there is a brick stack at the northern end. The eastern flank has a C19 porch and C20 extension to the ground-floor cellar with a window to serve drinks to the garden. There is no bar counter and drinks are served direct from the 'cellar' which is at ground-floor level. This has a stable door opening onto the central room with its grouped settles and an opening in the wall through to the western bar.

EXTERIOR: walling is whitewashed and a mixture of large-framed timber with brick infill and angle braces, and painted and rendered brick. The east front has an unusually large C19 porch with wooden walls and a lean-to roof at left with original fixed bench seats. A plank door leads to the central bar area. To the centre of this side are two paired windows, each of three-by-three panes and to the right is the projecting extension to the ground-floor cellar room with a three-light casement which allows drinks to be served to the garden. Above the centre is an attic dormer with flat roof and two casement lights.

The southern gable end of the original range is overlaid at ground floor level by a C20 lean-to kitchen extension to the left and walling of a urinal to the right. The gable contains a single and double casement.

The northern gable end has a two-light attic casement. To right of centre is a stack with a wide lower stage, which may be of earlier date, that narrows to an upper body of C19 or C20 brick. The lean-to end of the cellar extension is at left.

The rear of this original range has at its southern end a ground floor window and doorway and a blocked window. To the northern end is a two-light ground-floor casement with a two-light dormer to the first floor which has a star and the initial 'N' in relief to its gablet. At the centre of this side is a projecting C19 wing which has a blank gabled western end. Its northern flank has a doorway at left and a three-light and single-light casements to the right. To left of centre is a C20 recessed panel showing a figure in C18 dress carrying a tray of beer with the wording 'MORLAND / ABINGDON'. The southern side of the wing has a door to right and a two-light casement at left with a stepped buttress to left of centre.

INTERIOR: the central room has an arrangement of three wooden settles forming an enclosed group at the centre of the room with passageways surrounding them on the east and north sides. The settles appear to be of mid-C19 date and have boarded backs and shaped arm rests and their top rails support iron uprights and horizontal rails, rising to near ceiling height, which formerly supported curtains. The C20 fire surround on the southern side of the enclosure has brick sides and an oak frame. The chimney breast is substantial and it is believed that there was formerly an inglenook on this side of the benched enclosure.

Flooring is of clay tiles and there is a central spinal beam with chamfered edges. To the south of the central room is a narrower service room which shares the central chimney stack. This leads through to the C20 kitchen. At the northern end of the ground floor is the cellar room and the north bar, both of which were substantially rebuilt in 2003, but incorporating salvaged chamfered ceiling beams and timber framing from the original structure with old shelving. Metal bracing to the ceiling timbers was introduced at the time of the reconstruction. The northern bar has exposed timber-framed walling with brick infill, a C20 fire surround and some vertical plank panelling to dado height on the western wall.

The C19 western wing has a cross passage at its eastern end which provides entry to the ground floor rooms of the pub at either side. The walls are timber framed with painted or rendered brick infill. To the west of the passageway is a function room with floorboards and picture rail and a C20 fire surround. Rooms all have metal numbers on their doors or panelling; a probable requirement of the licensing magistrates.

The attic storey was not inspected, but is believed to have boarded walls and ceiling.

History

The core of the building appears to be C17 with later C19 and C20 additions, including the C19 western wing, a lean-to addition at the southern end and a C20 outshut on the east side with brick walling. The internal seating in the central ground-floor room, where three ranges of settles form a rectangle with a hearth to the fourth side, dates from the mid C19. The Cox family were landlords here from 1842 and the ownership is now in the hands of a relative of theirs. In the early C20 the owners were the Wantage Brewing Company and in 1940 this changed to Morland's which was in turn taken over by Greene King. The pub was sold in 2002 to the present owners. The pub is named after the star in the sky, but the pub sign was apparently changed by the licensee Jack Cox to represent Stephenson's Great Western Railway locomotive which ran on the railway line roughly 200 metres to the south. The census of 1901 records Mr Cox as 'Blacksmith and Beer Retailer' and in the early C20 the pub was also a sweet shop. The northern bar and stillroom, together with the first floor of the building, were damaged in 2003 but were subsequently restored using much of the original timber-framed structure. The restoration was awarded a Vale of the White Horse Design Award in 2006. In the garden are two timber, open-sided huts and pitches for Aunt Sally games.

Reasons for Listing

The North Star Inn, Stocks Lane, Steventon is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* the building combines clear evidence of its modest, domestic vernacular origins with its change in the C18 or C19 to a public house with minimal alteration to the original plan form of that conversion.

Historic interest:
* as an example of a public house that contains the very rare feature of a ground-floor cellar room from which drinks are served directly to customers without a bar counter, combined with the equal rarity of a room with fixed ranges of mid-C19 bench seating forming an enclosure around a fire;

* a rare survival of a pub with a continuous history in the ownership of one family since the mid-C19 which has aided its survival in a largely original state.

Group value:
* with the many listed buildings ranged along the Causeway, Steventon, including the Causeway itself (Grade II*), a raised medieval walkway; Tudor House, 67 The Causeway (Grade II*); 71 The Causeway (Grade II); Looker House, 79 The Causeway (Grade II) and 81 The Causeway and attached Gateway (Grade II).

External Links

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