Building record 2878/19 - The Kings Arms

Public house. c.1700 with mid C19 additions and C20 alterations. Coursed rubblestone with later blue brick plinth and stone coped slate roof with brick end and various rear stacks.

{1} Public house. C.1700 with mid C19 additions and C20 alterations. Coursed rubblestone with later blue brick plinth and stone coped slate roof with brick end and various rear stacks. Rear wings of brick. Central-staircase plan originally. 2 storeys, cellar and attic. 3-window range at first floor of 6/6 sashes to left and centre, and sash-type window to right. Ground floor has 6/6 sash to left, central panelled door, 6/6 sash to centre right and a canted bay beyond with 4/4 and 8/8 sashes. Moulded stucco cornice with 3 gabled dormers above which have small-pane windows. Left end blank but paired sash on single-storey rear wing. Right end has 6/6 sash on ground floor to right and small casement on side of rear 2-storey wing. The single-storey rear wing is attached to a long 2-storey range with a rubble stone back and brick sides and front. Slate roof. Various doors, garage doors and windows below with 6 windows above and perhaps a former loft door, now boarded. INTERIOR. Front range ground floor opened up but chamfered bridging beams survive (boxed to right). On first floor room divisions remain and there are chamfered bridging beams with ogee stops. One 2-panel door with HL hinges visible and others may survive at present covered with hardboard. Winder stair leads to attic and has simple balustrade at top. Here there are old wide floorboards and the massive principals of the roof with collars visible above door height. Roof of long rear range has bolted trusses. The front range is a comparatively little-altered example of a house of the period.

{2} Kings Arms
Shown on all early editions of Ordnance Survey maps as 'Kings Arms'. Still in use a public house of the same name today. Was originally used as a coaching inn.

{3} Oxford Archaeology has carried out a programme of building recording and investigation at the Kings Arms Public House, Desborough. The work is in advance of a refurbishment and extension to the pub and it has been undertaken as a condition of planning approval for the works. The original inn is an ironstone building of probable early 18th century date and is notable for its relatively plain but attractive vernacular construction similar to that of many buildings in this part of Northamptonshire. Desborough itself, however, has lost many such buildings and the Kings Arms is now a fragmentary reminder of how the village would once have appeared. The main phasing of the inn is relatively straightforward with several 19th and 20th century extensions to the rear but one of these extensions consisted of a rebuilding of an older rear range, probably contemporary with the original inn, which is likely to have been a stable block which may have served coaches and travellers passing through Desborough.

{4} Shown on 1750? Map of Desborough

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> Ballinger, J, 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Desborough (Industrial), (unchecked) (Digital archive). SNN100502.

<3> Gill, J., 2003, The Kings Arms Desborough: Historic Building Recording, P. 1 (checked) (Report). SNN103892.

<4> 1750?, Desborough furlong plan, (unchecked) (Map). SNN102477.

Record last edited

Sep 25 2020 10:26AM