Building record 727/0/65 - No.185 Watling Street West

Mid 18th century house with early C19 alterations. Painted brick, 20th-century tile roofs, brick ridge and end stacks. 3-unit plan. There is some evidence that there are in situ medieval roof timbers, and that this building was known as The Angel Inn as early as 1448.

{1} House, mid 18th with early 19th century alterations. 3-unit plan. 2 storey, 4-window range. Attached service cottage to the left.

{2} House and attached cottage. Mid C18 with early C19 alterations. Painted brick, C20 tile roofs, brick ridge and end stacks. 3-unit plan. 2 storey, 4-window range. 5-panel door to right of centre with ornamental overlight flanked by pairs of Tuscan pilasters supporting entablature with triglyph frieze. Tripartite horned sash windows to ground floor left and right with moulded stone surrounds and keyblocks. 4-panel double-leaf door to far left with overlight and rendered surround with blocked lintel. C19 horned plate glass sash windows to first floor with moulded stone surrounds. Plinth, storey band and moulded cornice. Service cottage to left, of painted brick under same roof, a 2-storey, 2-window range, has 5-panel door to right approached by 3 stone steps with overlight and rendered surround with keyblock. C19 horned sash windows to ground and first floors with segmental brick heads. Plinth and dentilled brick eaves. Interior: house has chequered stone-paved staircase hall, open-well staircase with stick balusters, carved tread ends and ramped handrail. 6-panel doors in reeded surrounds. Two early C19 reeded marble chimneypieces and brick-lined cellar.

{3} Documentary analysis indicates that the Angel Inn stood here from at least 1448. It probably stopped being an inn in around 1825. The plan form of the current building show remnants of an early 19th century inn plan as both 183 & 185 have identically positioned rear corridors, confirmed by maps of 1806 and c1830, suggesting the presence of a courtyard inn on the site of both buildings in this period. The new façade was probably commissioned around 1860. Photographs of the roof space indicate two of the trusses have arch-bracing; soot-blackening is apparent on one, with two raking queen posts mortised into the principal rafters and on the plastered infill of a closed truss with a central upright and two cambered braces- possible in situ medieval timbers and evidence of an open hall?

{4} Undated photo;

<1> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), F08 p.87 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN45262.

<2> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 13/192 (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<3> Giggins B., 2010, Historic Building Assessment: 185 Watling Street, Towcester (Note). SNN111383.

<4> Photographs of buildings in Towcester (Photographs). SNN114425.

Record last edited

Jan 4 2023 2:14PM