Building record 727/22/1 - Nos.163-5 Watling Street West

Former coaching inn, now used as offices and store. C.1770 with C19 and C20 alterations. Red brick in Flemish bond with flared headers, plain-tile roof, brick ridge and end stacks. Formerly the White Horse Inn and the town's principal coaching and posting inn.

{1} White Horse Inn. Large three storey building of red and blue brick construction; has a former carriage arch which is now blocked up. Building is currently in use as offices. The stucture is listed and list description claims that it was the White Horse Inn - the town's principal coaching and posting inn. Film 3, photo 1.

{2} The building recorded following stripping out is essentially that of the 18th to 19th century coaching inn, "The New White Horse". Nothing survives with certainty of the pre-coaching inn fabric, known from documents to have comprised two separate messuages, each for some time an inn in its own right, although the surviving general layouts may indicate parts of their former basic footprints. Basically a lot of the evidence was not seen due to it being protected by its listing status while the stripping out was taking place. This leaves much for future building analysis should further alteration or conversion take place.

{3} Former coaching inn, now used as offices and store. C.1770 with C19 and C20 alterations. Red brick in Flemish bond with flared headers, plain-tile roof, brick ridge and end stacks. Three-unit plan. 3-storey, 6-window range. Wide C20 double-leaf doors to left of centre in original carriage arch. 4 shallow canted C19 bay windows to ground floor; blocked door between those to right of centre. 12-pane sash windows to fist floor with gauged brick lintels and keyblocks. 9-pane sashes to attic floor. R plinth, serrated brick storey bands, and corbelled brick eaves. Interior has two open-well staircases in stair turrets to rear with turned balusters. Formerly the White Horse Inn and the town's principal coaching and posting inn.

{4} Coaching inn built c.1770 with 19th and 20th century alterarations. Three-unit plan. 3-storey, 6-window range. Carriage arch. Formerly the White Horse Inn and the town's principal coaching and posting inn. Now used as offices and store.

{9} Undated photo;

<1> Ballinger J., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Towcester (Industrial), 3.4.2 (unchecked) (Digital archive). SNN100255.

<2> Soden I.; Upson-Smith T., 2002, "New for Old" The Archaeology of The White Horse, A Former Coaching Inn at 163-165 Watling Street, Towcester, Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Report). SNN102249.

<3> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 13/185 (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<4> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), F08 p.84 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN45262.

<5> CBA South Midlands Group, 2003, South Midlands Archaeology: CBA Group 9 Newsletter (33), p.56 (unchecked) (Journal). SNN103380.

<6> Piggot, 1830, Directory for Northamptonshire, p.628 (unchecked) (Directory). SNN109950.

<7> De Wilde G.J., 1872, Rambles Roundabout and Poems, p.118-9 (unchecked) (Book). SNN1106.

<8> 2001, 163-165 Watling Street, Towcester, (unchecked) (Photographs). SNN106866.

<9> Photographs of buildings in Towcester (Photographs). SNN114425.

Record last edited

Mar 25 2025 10:55AM