Building record 4679/0/11 - The Sun, Moon and Stars Public House, High Street

Built in 1797 of red brick with Welsh slate roofs. Originally known as the Half Moon Inn. The name changed in the 1840s.

{1} Public house and restaurant, formerly inn. Dated 1797, altered C20. Red brick, painted, hipped slate roof, brick lateral stacks. L plan. 2 and 3 storeys. Central 6-panel door with pilastered wood surround and straight hood on brackets, flanked by canted bay windows with 16-pale sashes to front, 8-pane sashes to sides, and sash windows to 1st and 2nd floors with flat-arched brick lintels. 2-storey, 1-window range to left of centre has gabled roof and brick end stack, 3-storey main range to right of centre extends to rear right and has datestone to right side elevation of ironstone. Interior not inspected. Believed to have been built in conjunction with Grand Union Canal nearby.

{?} A recent study demonstrated that residential use would be the best re-use option for this building which is empty and in much need of repair.

{3} Evidence from the Grafton Rent Books indicates that this site was the location of the Chequer Ale House in the 18th century; by 1741 much of the property had burnt down with only a small portion surviving. The present building was constructed on the site in 1797 in red brick. The north elevation of stone may be a remnant of the earlier building.

{4} Undated photo, also photo dated 15.12.1993;

{5} The present inn was built in 1797 by John Linnett, on the ruins of ‘The Chequers’, an earlier stone-built inn, elements of which survive in the present building. Linnett’s new inn was called the ‘Half Moon’. In 1822, the inn was purchased by Pickering Phipps, becoming part of the Phipps & Co tied house estate.
During the mid to late 19th century, the inn became known as the ‘Sun, Moon & Seven Stars’ as a result of its association with the Manchester Oddfellows Society, whose logo includes those items: this became shortened to the ‘Sun, Moon & Stars’, though locally the original name ‘Half Moon’ was still used. The building remained an inn until the 1960s, when Phipps & Co became part of the Watney Mann brewing empire, and the inn was sold and delicensed. Since then it has housed an Arts & Crafts gallery, a café and a licensed restaurant, the latter closing in 1988 when the outbuilding containing the restaurant kitchens was demolished by a runaway lorry. At this time the building was listed Grade II, but during the following decade it deteriorated and was eventually compulsorily purchased by South Northants Council in c.2004.

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 10/15 (checked) (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), F10 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN45262.

<3> Marsh, T., 2007, The Sun, Moon and Stars Building (Website). SNN111491.

<4> Photographs of buildings in Blisworth (Photographs). SNN112040.

<5> Zeepvat, B, 2019, Historic Building Recording: The Sun, Moon & Stars, 64 High Street, Blisworth (Report). SNN112249.

<6> Crank, N. (Editor), 2020, South Midlands Archaeology (50), p. 77 (Journal). SNN112426.

Record last edited

Apr 14 2021 9:20AM