ENN110744 - Samuel Pepys Inn, 2022 (Building recording)

MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) was commissioned by Bob Harrington Design, on behalf of M&A Knightsbridge Properties, to undertake a programme of historic building recording at the Samuel Pepys Inn, Slipton, Northamptonshire. This was required prior to the proposed development of partial demolition and conversion of the public house to a single residential dwelling with associated garage, access, parking and landscaping. The public house displays several clear phases of development creating an accretive building indicating both the rise and fall of the rural public house. There are clear indications of an original range of some antiquity, although its original purpose, function and layout are now difficult to ascertain. Like most public houses a scheme of internal decorating has removed much of the historic fabric and replaced it with faux elements including timber-framed studwork walls, boarded doors, and reused timbers. These timbers otherwise speak of sophistication within the carpentry tradition but have been reused within a new context that does not allow for these to be understood as first intended. Other extensions during the 18th to 20th centuries added more space for the public house, and a conservatory allowed a greater emphasis on the selling of food, rather than drink, that followed the industry in the late 20th century. Overall, the building has been much changed and many of the original historic features removed or disguised as the function of the building changed.