The Rose and Crown, Huish Episcopi, Somerset

Summary

Public house, originating around 1800, with subsequent extension.

Description

Public house, originating around 1800, with subsequent extension.

MATERIALS: lias stone roughly cut and squared, with thatched, corrugated iron and pantiled roofs, and brick chimneystacks.

PLAN: the main range is rectangular on plan and is orientated roughly east-west. It has a double-depth internal plan, which consists of two rooms on either side of a central through passage. The lean-to range to the west contains the former innkeeper’s parlour and a store on the ground floor, and there has been a late-C20 extension to the north. The games room is excluded from the listing.

There is an attached single-storey range to the east, containing the beer cellar, store, WCs and skittle alley running to the north along Pounsell Lane.

EXTERIOR: the principal elevation faces south, and exhibits a number of phases of development. Central is a two-storey, three-bay range beneath a hipped, thatched roof. Openings have pointed arches with roughly-hewn stone voussoirs. There is a central front doorway with a half-glazed panelled door. Windows are iron lancet casements with leaded lights, in timber frames with Y-tracery. To the left (west) of the main range is a two-storey outshut with a tiled roof. On the ground floor it has two windows, one of which is has been created from a blocked doorway; there is a single window on the upper floor. A break in the masonry indicates a further phase of development to the west, which contains two low blocked openings. The west return elevation of the outshut is blind.

On the east return elevation the phasing of the building is apparent, with the thatched range at the front, and the later, rear range having a lean-to corrugated iron roof. The single-storey eastern range obscures the lower part of the east elevation.

The north elevation is partially obscured by the single-storey range and the modern extensions. That section of the elevation which remains exposed has a door and two window openings beneath massive stone lintels.

The narrow, single-storey range to the east exhibits a number of phases of development and incorporates various building materials: stone, brick and concrete. To the east of the main range it is a lean-to construction, supported by the return elevation. To the north there is a break in the masonry and the roof rises to a pitch. The east elevation is largely blind; the west elevation is mostly brick-built, and bears evidence of extension, rebuilding and modification.

INTERIOR: the historic plan form of the pub remains apparent, with two rooms on either side of a central through passage, and with a parlour within the lean-to range to the west. The front entrance leads into the through passage; it has a flagstone floor and dado matchboarding along the left-hand wall. An opening on the left provides access to the room known as the ‘Piano Room’, and on the right an opening into the ‘Men’s Kitchen’ has been blocked. Further along the through passage are openings into the servery and the kitchen.

The Piano Room and the Men’s Kitchen are original to the pub, and were refitted in the interwar period. Like the through passage, the rooms have flagstone floors and matchboarded dados. The Men’s Kitchen, distinguishable by the figure ‘2’ marked on the ledge and plank door, has a wide fireplace opening with the remains of a historic range within a narrower brick insertion. There are cubbies and shelves on either side. The timber bressumer has a chamfered central section, and a narrow shelf above. The window sill in this room is a very deep block of stone. The Piano Room has a 1930s chimneypiece in brick with a tiled mantle-shelf and hearth. The internal doors are panelled and half glazed.

The servery room, to the rear of the Piano Room, has a flagstone floor and shelving with hand-pumps attached to it. The beer dispensers include an interwar beer engine manufactured by Dalex with levers jutting horizontally out of the engine casing. There is a small bar, inserted in the 1960s and replaced in the early C21 following flood damage. A matchboarded staircase leads to the first floor, and in the space beneath the flight is a stone plinth with free-standing stillages. Roughly hewn joists support the upper floor.

To the west of the Piano Room is the former publican’s parlour; it has a chimneypiece of roughly-hewn stone built upon an earlier chimneybreast. The room to the north-west was added in the 1980s, replacing earlier toilets. The pool room, too, dates from the late C20, and is excluded from the listing.

The first floor was not inspected.

The narrow eastern range contains a series of functional spaces: a store, cellar, WCs and the skittle alley. The skittle alley is plastered internally with some matchboarding to the ceiling.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the pub sign stands just to the south of the front entrance. It is a timber post with a wrought iron sign; this has a frame with scrolls, and the pub name with a rose and crown motif within.

Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the C20 games room to the north is not of special architectural or historic interest.

History

The Rose and Crown had been so-named by 1835, and while the distinctive windows may be of that date, the building is likely to have originated earlier in the century. A building is shown on the plot on the Original Series Ordnance Survey map of 1811-1817. It is depicted more clearly on the 1887 map, which shows the main range, the western outshuts, and the skittle alley to the north-east.

There are a number of historic photographs of the pub which chart the changes made to the main façade in the C20; these are few: a doorway to the left has been blocked and replaced with a window, and a flat-arched window opening above has been modified to form a pointed arch, matching the openings elsewhere on the elevation. The first floor windows have been changed slightly, creating a diamond light between the arches of the lancet casements. The lean-to store on the right-hand side was originally fronted by weatherboarding and a pair of timber doors; early C20 photographs show it with an advertising sign for a poultry fertilizer, suggesting the building may have served more than one commercial function. The front has been rebuilt in masonry with an arched doorway, consistent with the other openings. An early 1960s photograph shows that the pub sign, which stands mounted on a timber post at the entrance to the building, was present by that date.

The fabric of the building suggests a number of phases of development. The main range of the building was originally a two-cell dwelling. The full width of the rear was extended to create a double pile plan; this may have occurred at the point that the dwelling was converted to a pub. Since the conversion, the two front rooms have been dedicated to public use; the former innkeeper’s parlour, within the lean-to range to the west, has also been turned into a public room. The pub is one of only a handful nationally to have no bar counter; instead, it has a very unusual arrangement, with a sunken servery room through which customers are free to wander. The pub appears to have undergone a refurbishment in the interwar period, from which it retains a number of features, including an unusual Dalex beer engine.

Reasons for Listing

The Rose and Crown is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* originating in around 1800, it is a distinctive, picturesque building, and its historic development is illustrated by the fabric;
* the historic plan form remains legible, and it is one of only a handful of pubs without a bar, instead having a very unusual public servery area;
* a characterful interior, with C19 flooring and joinery, and panelling, shelving and a fireplace surviving from an interwar refitting;
* it retains a C19 skittle alley: an unusual feature in the national context.

Historic interest:

* an example of a public house with a highly unusual historic mode of service, demonstrating variety within the building type.

External Links

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