Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 13 June 2023 to update the name and address, amend description due to change of building use and to reformat the text to current standards

TQ 67 41
15/135

BRENCHLEY
HIGH STREET (south side)
1 to 3, Old Inn Cottage
Former Rose and Crown Public House

(Formerly listed as The Rose and Crown Public House, HIGH STREET)

20.10.54

GV
II
Former public house. C17 origins, alterations of the early C18 and early C19. Framed construction, the front elevation underbuilt in brick to the ground floor, tile-hung above and painted white; peg-tile roof; brick stacks.

Plan: the former public house adjoins the Bournes shop range (q.v.) and faces north, fronting the High Street. L-plan. The main range was three-rooms wide (now two), the two right hand (west) rooms formerly heated from back-to-back fireplaces in an axial stack ith a lobby entrance. The left hand room is probably a rebuilding or addition and was originally unheated. Rear right wing heated from an end stack. Rear service block under a two-span roof. The absence of evidence for infill on the first floor rear wall framing suggests that the building always had a two-storey rear service block of some kind. The roof construction suggests that the main range attic was designed to be used for storage, perhaps with a loft door at the right end. In the circa early C18 the house was re-windowed. A winder stair to the rear probably dates from this phase. Ground floor bay windows were added in the early C19. The partition between the two left hand rooms has been removed.

Exterior: two storeys and attic. Asymmetrical four-window front, the roof half-hipped at the right end; left end stack at the junction with the Bournes shop range, axial stack to right of centre. C20 front door to the lobby entrance with an C18 or early C19 gabled porch hood. Three early C19 canted ground floor bay windows, two to the left of the porch, one to the right, the two left hand windows converted to doors in the centre, the right hand window intact with a sixteen-pane sash in the centre and eight-pane outer sashes; early C19 twelve-pane sash to ground floor right. The first floor windows are early C18 two- and three-light casements the mullions bead-moulded on the inner face, with fine original window furniture typical of and peculiar to the parish and leaded panes including some original glazing. Two similarly-glazed hipped roof attic dormers. The right return also has some C18 windows with leaded panes, some with quadrant catches. C19 panelled door into the wing.

Interior: the two left hand ground floor rooms have exposed ceiling beams. The chamfered sole plate of the centre room does not extend into the left hand room. The right hand ground floor room and the wing have some re-used ceiling beams and wall-framing timbers. The main block frame preserves wall posts with jowled heads.

Roof: above the two right hand rooms the tie beam and clasped purlin roof has remarkably steeply-cambered collars, shaped like an inverted U. One of the collars has a rough off-centre hole in it that appears to be in line with a former timber wheel, fixed partly in the axial stack and possibly used as a lifting mechanism for goods pulled in through a first floor opening.

The exterior of this building is very important to the character of Brenchley; interesting interior features.

Listing NGR: TQ6787041807

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26554240

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

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)