SNN110954 - Site of the Royal Oak Public House, Fotheringhay, Northants: Historic Building Recording

A programme of historic building recording was carried out on a barn located on the site of the former Royal Oak public house, Woodnewton Road, Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire. The project was commissioned by Ross Thain Architects in response to a condition attached to planning permission granted by East Northamptonshire Council (Planning ref. 15/00158. Fieldwork was undertaken on 5th April 2017. The recorded building is not present on an 1814 drawing for the Ordnance Survey First Series maps, but a corresponding structure is shown on the Ordnance Survey First Edition County map of 1886. The majority of the buildings associated with the Royal Oak survived into the late twentieth century, but were demolished at some time after they were depicted on the Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map of 1977-8. Constructed in limestone, the building forms a high space open to the roof, with a probable pitching door (now a window) high in one wall and a single width doorway at ground floor. The flooring comprises flagstones extending throughout the southwestern part of the building, with brick over the opposite end containing the door. Rendering over the lower extents of the wall in the latter area suggests a separate compartment, which might originally have been defined by a (timber?) partition wall. The building has many of the characteristics of a chaff house. Chaff houses became increasingly common in the second and third quarters of the nineteenth century, as storage facilities and processing areas for cattle fodder, and then for fodder for horses. The building might have served the farming interests of the publican, during a period when it was not unusual for tradesmen to be engaged in small scale agriculture. Alternatively, the building might have served stables associated with the Royal Oak.