The Black Lion Public House (EHER 38500)

An 18th and early 19th century public house, extended in the 20th century. It is partly timber framed and weatherboarded and partly of painted brick. The roof is covered with handmade red clay tiles.

May 1986. Grade II listed. An 18th and early 19th century public house, extended in the 20th century. It is partly timber framed and weatherboarded and partly of painted brick. The roof is covered with handmade red clay tiles. The 18th century portion of the building is weatherboarded and situated to the SE. It is single storey with attics, divided into four bays, and has a full-length lean-to extension to its rear, as well a 20th century flat-roofed porch. The porch gives way to a 20th century door with side lights. There is a late 19th century tripartite sash window of 2-4-2 lights on the ground floor. The attic roof has an early 19th century sash window of 4 + 8 lights in a slate-roofed lean-to dormer. A small lean-to, 19th century, extension to the front with splayed bay window connects the 18th and 19th century builds. To the left of the 18th century building is the early 19th century two-storey building on an L-shaped plan. On the ground floor it has two early 19th century tripartite sash windows of 4-12-4 lights and the first floor also has two early 19th century tripartite sash windows of 4-12-4 lights. This portion of the building also has a 19th century single storey rear extension with attics, which is weatherboarded and has a hipped roof. There are further 20th century lean-to extensions in the left rear angle. <1> November 2013. Heritage assessment. The Black Lion began life as a simple three bayed, two-storey, gambrel-roofed house of scantling timber late in the 18th century, sometime after 1777. A typically Georgian brick-built and symmetrical house with sash windows and grey slate roof was built adjacent to the North, sometime before 1838. The first registered owner was a bricklayer Joseph Linn. The brick house had a long timber framed rear range, used as a service wing, and a rear outshut was also added to the gambrel cottage. By 1861, Joseph Linn is listed as an innkeeper as well as a bricklayer and he may have improved the house for his inn keeping business. By 1875, the two buildings had been visually joined by a canted bay window and a porch added to the front of the gambrel cottage. In the late 1970s or 1980s the Watney Company added a toilet block to the Northern side of the house. In 1988, a large rear extension of the same form as the gambrel cottage was added to a design by architect Terence Winn. The present owners, the former landlords, are in the process of converting the entire house. <2> See photo <3>.