Description

SP4631 DEDDINGTON HORSEFAIR
(North side)
8/180 King's Arms Public House
08/12/55 (Formerly listed as King's
Arms Hotel)

GV II
Inn, now public house. Probably early/mid C16, re-modelled mid C17 and altered
late C18/early C19. Rendered stone; Stonesfield-slate and Welsh-slate roofs with
rubble-and-brick stacks. 2-unit through-passage plan plus long cross-wing. 2
storeys plus attic. Centre of 4-window front has a gabled rectangular 2-storey
bay window, with 6-light stone-mullioned windows below flat label moulds in both
floors; gable wall of cross wing, to left, has a similar bay window at ground
floor only, now without its mullions, and has a 16-pane sash above. Bay window-
may be C17 additions. Remaining bays of front include a third bay window,
probably early C18, with a 6-light casement above which are two 16-pane sashes.
Bay windows are linked by a C20 flat canopy, sheltering fielded 6-panel doors,
set between the projections. Steep-pitched roof has a brick gable stack to right
and returns on left to the 2-window cross wing, which has a large projecting
lateral stack in line with main range. Wing has C18 and C19 casements, and has a
C19 stone rear gable wall. Rear of main range has C20 extensions, partly masking
a massive rendered lateral stack with numerous offsets, and has a gabled stair
projection which is probably a C17 addition. Interior: main range has the
moulded heads of through-passage partitions, to left with wide mortices for a
plank screen. Room to right (probably originally unheated) has stop-chamfered
spine and lateral beams. Room to left, with a large rubble-arched open
fireplace, has heavy stop-chamfered intersecting beam and lateral beams; small
Tudor-arched wooden doorway leads to cross-wing. (Rooms now combined into bar).
Stair projection to rear of right room has a mid/late-C17 open-well stair with
large turned balusters and a square handrail, the lowest balustade extended
upwards with 2 more tiers of contemporary balusters. First floor has remains of
a chamber fireplace, the bressumer chamfer originally returning down the jambs,
3-bay roof, originally separate from cross-wing roof, retains the timber-framed
left gable (now internal) with closely-spaced studs, and has a similar truss
over the through passage; between them is an arch-braced collar truss with a
later tiebean. Roof was probably reconstructed with new purlins and an attic
floor in C17 after structural failure but retains massive rafters and 2 curved
windbraces. Cross-wing contains a long room with smaller stop-chamfered
intersecting beans and perimeter beams dividing the ceiling into 8 panels; rear
room has a heavy chamfered beam with closely-spaced unchamfered joists; a
timber-framed cross passage (with later stair) divides the range at both floors.
Roof is much altered and reinforced but retains at least one arch-braced collar
truss. Neither roof shows smoke blackening, but principal first-floor room in
each range was probably originally open to rafters. A rare example of the use of
partial timber-framing in a stone-building region.
(Buildings of England: Oxfordshire: p571; VCH: Oxfordshire: Vol XI, p86)

Listing NGR: SP4666831754

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26496218

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)