Holly Bush public house, Bollington, Cheshire East

Summary

Public house, rebuilt c1935 in Brewer's Tudor style. Handmade brick with ashlar dressings to the ground floor, half timberwork to the first floor, hammer-dressed buff sandstone to the rear with ashlar dressings, slate roof, 2-storeys.

Description

PLAN: the Holly Bush has a 3-room plan on the ground floor with a tap room to the front left, a snug to the front right, and a smoke room set to the rear right behind the main stair. The bar is located along the left side of the smoke room. An additional, L-shaped service range containing kitchens and toilets is attached to the rear. The pub also incorporates an adjacent former cottage, which is attached to the south-eastern side.

EXTERIOR: the Holly Bush is attached to terraced cottages on each side and is set back at an angle to Palmerston Street with the front elevation facing south-west. This 3-bay elevation has narrow handmade brick facings laid in stretcher bond, with a soldier course set just below the first floor. To the centre of the ground floor is the main entrance, which consists of a Tudor-arched doorway containing a panelled door with leaded-glazed top lights incorporating bull's eyes; the doorway has a quoined ashlar surround. Flanking the entrance are two 6-light windows with quoined ashlar surrounds and leaded glazing incorporating stained glass depictions of holly bushes. The first floor is rendered and has applied timberwork; the render is tooled to imitate simple pargeting. It is lit by a 2-light casement window to the centre bay and 3-light casement windows to the two outer bays; all have leaded glazing and thickened stanchions to give the appearance of mullions. The centre bay also jetties out slightly underneath a small gable and is supported by plain ashlar corbels. Set to each end of the ridge are two short brick stacks. The north-west return elevation is similarly constructed with handmade brick facings to the ground floor and half timberwork above. Immediately to the right of the pub is a lower, 2-storey former cottage constructed of hammer-dressed buff sandstone that forms part of the pub and has a window lighting the pub's ladies toilets to the ground-floor left, a large inserted opening to the right with timber doors, and two replaced, top-hung multipane casement windows to the first floor. The pub's rear elevation possibly represents the original rear wall of the earlier building and incorporates windows of varying style and size, including sash windows and a 1930s 6-light window to the ground floor with leaded glazing incorporating bull's eyes and heraldic motifs, which lights the smoke room; one of the upper lights has an inserted ventilator. An attached, single-storey, L-shaped service range in the rear yard is constructed of similar materials.

INTERIOR: internally most of the original 1930s panelled doors survive. An entrance vestibule with herringbone-patterned brickwork side walls and a panelled and leaded-glazed inner door leads into a panelled lobby. Off to the left of the lobby through a doorway that has lost its door is the tap room, which has moulded coving, a picture rail, original fixed-bench seating with a baffle adjacent to the doorway, and a timber, glazed-brick and faience-tile fireplace incorporating a pointed-arched opening. The original 1930s hatch into the smoke-room bar behind has been replaced by a panelled bar counter, which is believed to have been inserted in the 1960s. Off to the right of the lobby is the snug, which has applied timberwork to the walls and a 1930s timber and brick fireplace with a Tudor-arched inner stone surround. Set immediately behind the snug, and set at a right angle to the entrance lobby, is a panelled corridor leading to the ladies toilet, which is located in the ground floor of the attached former cottage and has an ante room with a dado of 1930s glazed tiles and an original geometric-patterned tiled floor. Forming the north-east side of the corridor is the main stair, which has a geometric balustrade and a square newel post with a dome cap and chamfering to its upper edges, creating an octagonal shape. The smoke room is located to the rear right of the ground floor and contains original fixed-bench seating (re-upholstered and also extended), a baffle, bell pushes, and a glazed brick, faience-tile and timber fireplace incorporating ziggurat shaping to the inner surround and a panelled overmantel. Like the lobby, the walls are panelled to picture rail height with moulded coving above. The smoke room's north-western wall was removed in the 1960s to open the room up to the panelled bar servery, which lies alongside the pub's north-west wall and has three leaded-glazed upper screens and a bar back incorporating original shelving and two tall and narrow display cases with leaded lights incorporating ogee-arched heads and bull's eyes. The servery also contains an annunciator box for the bell-push system, which originally denoted where service was required within the pub, but is no longer in working order. Set within the panelled north-east wall of the servery is a doorway containing a 5-panel door leading into the rear service rooms, with two adjacent internal windows with patterned leaded glazing and multipaned overlights. A further glazed multipaned door in the smoke room's north-east wall leads into a rear porch with a tiled floor incorporating the signs of the zodiac. A plain first-floor club room is contained within the attached former cottage, and the landlord's flat, which lies above the main body of the pub, has been altered, although panelling on the first-floor landing and some 1930s panelled doors survive.

History

The Holly Bush pub was rebuilt c1935 in 'Brewer's Tudor' style and replaced an earlier, smaller public house that is depicted on the 1st edition 1:2500 OS map published in 1873.

Reasons for Listing

The Holly Bush, Bollington, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Rarity: it is a rare survival of a small urban pub rebuilt in c1935 that survives largely unaltered;

* Architectural interest: it is a good example of the 'Brewer's Tudor' style of public house architecture, which was popular in the inter-war period but survivals of which are now increasingly rare, and it incorporates Tudor-style features both externally and internally;

* Interior quality: the internal fixtures and fittings are of a good quality throughout, including herringbone-patterned brickwork in the entrance vestibule, panelled walls and doors (some of the latter incorporating leaded glazing), glazed-brick, faience and timber fireplaces, original fixed-bench seating and baffles, bell pushes in the smoke room for table service (a rare survival) and a bar servery with leaded screens and a bar back incorporating display cases.

External Links

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