Building record 745/0/18 - The Compasses, No 12 High Street

Significant building in South Northants. Probable early 18th century origins as a farmhouse. Later an inn, in operation until 1970. Now a house

{1} Identified by South Northamptonshire Council as being a building of historic and/or architectural significance.

{2} Built of local limestone, quoined at the south end with slate roofs. A rear wing on the west side, originally single storey and raised to two, joins a small outbuilding, a former wash-house. Large stone and painted brick extension along the rear. Three chimneys: two on the gable ends and one off centre.

The original house is of three bays. Kitchen has a large inglenook fireplace offset to the front wall. A stair behind the stack may well be in the original position. This room had a timber framed and wattle and daub partition dividing off the southern room. This has a late inserted brick stack. The chamfered spine beam runs through both rooms, with scoop and check chamfer stops. The ceiling joists are also chamfered with run-out stops only and these are widely spaced. The principal room fireplace has a timber lintel and slight cahmfer, and various peg holes, and is decorated with a white painted name 'John' in an 18th/early 19th century hand. A second inscription, much eroded, appears to rear 'Io…'. On the right (north) a second heated room, probably the original parlour, has a transverse ceiling beam, with elongated ogee chamfer stops. The stone ingelnook fireplace is also large, and has a salt box and the remains of an oven on the inside reveal, the rear of which has been cut away when a passage was forced through to the former outbuilding in line to the north.

An early legend refers to King John's visits for hunting when he would stay at The Compasses. A mistress he kept here was said to have been murdered at the inn. One bedroom is still known as King John's Room and is said to be haunted. It is also claimed the monks from Luffield Abbey frequented here. Stone walls observed three feet down in the roadway may relate to an earlier building on the site.

The current building was originally a farmhouse with barns, pig sties and stables. It later became an established alehouse and the rear wing, which may originally have been a dairy, was altered and a cellar inserted.
In the 19th century the south gable wall received a rendered panel and a painted inscription 'The Lord Encompasseth Thee' presumably the origin of its present name. Now only 'Manns Oxford Brewery' can be deciphered.

It ceased to be a pub in 1970 and was sold as a private house in 1971.

{3} In 1877 the landlord was Richard Linnell and in 1897 the landlord was Mrs Caroline Rush

<1> SOUTH NORTHAMPTONSHIRE COUNCIL, 2012, South Northamptonshire Council Survey of Significant Historic Buildings, (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN108984.

<2> Woodfield P., 2005, The Whittlewood Project: Historic Buildings Survey, Silverstone, No 12, The Compasses (Report). SNN105035.

<3> Denny, B, 2003, Towcester Public Houses in 1877 and 1898 (by name) (Website). SNN110958.

Record last edited

Jun 1 2020 3:28PM