Building record 727/20/1 - No.36 Watling Street East (Ye Old Watling Well Hotel)

Inn, now hotel and restaurant. Dated 1650 with C20 alterations. Coursed squared limestone and ironstone, C20 plain-tile roof, brick end stack to left.

{1} Inn, now hotel and restaurant. Dated 1650 with C20 alterations. Coursed squared limestone and ironstone, C20 plain-tile roof, brick end stack to left. 2-unit plan. 2 storeys and attic; 3-window range. Central 4-panel door in pilastered wood surround flanked by C20 bay windows with continuous moulded wood cornice. C20 2-light windows to first floor centre, with wood lintels, small blocked window to first floor left with stone surround, 2-light casement to first floor right with chamfered stone surround. Turret with hipped roof, 2-light casement to front with wood lintel and datestone below inscribed L/WS/M/1650. Quoins and one gabled roof dormer to right. Interior not inspected.

{2} Former inn 17th century inn, at some time later bcame a restaurant and hotel. Called Ye Old Watling Well Hotel. Datestone L/WS/M/1650. 20th century alterations. 2-unit plan. 2 storeys and attic; 3-window range.

{3} Now Wishing Well Inn. The building is of limestone and ironstone construction and is dated 1650, although there have been 20th century alterations. Film 3, photo 16.

{4} Hand-dug test pits identified various layers, floors and walls related to the standing building.
The building is dated by a datestone set prominently in the front wall of the second floor window (initials L/W (shield) S/M over the date 1650, set in ironstone in a sunken panel with a moulded surround. There is no evidence that this has ever been moved or reset and internal evidence confirms 1650 as the likely date of construction.
The building is of local ironstone, with some Blisworth limestone used for infill walling, and at present it has a plain tiled roof.
Detailed descriptions of the building's interior. Plans, elevations and photographs.
The building is a fine and reasonably complete C17th structure which retains much of the original roof structure, but which has lost through modifications over time, much of its original detail, to the extent that little more than the original deposition of rooms at the front can be ascertained. Recent works have added a little to the evidence, in particular the presence of a timber framed end wall.

{6} The development site consists of the Watling Well Inn and a small yard to the rear. The existing building consists of extensive C19th amd C20th alterations and additions to an original C17th inn (dated 1650). In the 1840s the inn appears to have been considerably larger consisting of the C17th core of the present building fronting onto Watling Street, a range to the rear fronting Sun Yard and a third extensive wing running north-west to south-east from the end of this latter range into what is now the garden of No.34 Watling Street. It seems likely that the inn reduced in size sometime after 1844, perhaps associated with the growth of the railways and resulting decline of coach traffic through Towcester.

{7} Undated photo;

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 13/152 (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), F08 p.70 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN45262.

<3> Ballinger J., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Towcester (Industrial), 3.4.2 (Digital archive). SNN100255.

<4> Ivens R.J.; Woodfield Associates, 2000, A Report On Archaeological Investigations And Historic Building Survey At Watling Well, Towcester, N, p.5+8-11 (checked) (Report). SNN100188.

<5> Giggins, B., 2005, Towcester's Industrial Archaeology, (unchecked) (Leaflet). SNN107693.

<6> Giggins B. L., 2014, Sun Yard Walled Garden, (unchecked) (Article). SNN109974.

<7> Photographs of buildings in Towcester (Photographs). SNN114425.

Record last edited

Mar 25 2025 10:55AM