SNN114806 - A record of fabric exposed during works to the former Wheatsheaf inn, 158 Watling Street East, Towcester (September 2020, with an Addendum February 2023)

158 Watling Street East, Towcester, NN12 6DB, is an 18th-century and later former inn, The Wheatsheaf. It is Grade II-listed and stands within the town’s conservation area. By 2019, when it was acquired by new owners, it had been unoccupied for many years, and had long since entered a poor state of repair with some serious underlying structural problems. The new owners’ intention is to restore the building and return it to residential use. After the new owners purchased the building targeted stripping out (removal of 20th-century partitions, fixtures and fittings, removal of plaster) was undertaken, it is acknowledged without any necessary consents. Following preparation of a Heritage Statement and Structural Report application was then made (application S/2020/0430/LBC) to carry forward the necessary programme of restoration works; a condition of the Pre-Commencements Conditions (S/2020/0429/FUL) was that a full record of the newly-exposed historic fabric be made to English Heritage Level 2 standards, based on a WSI submitted to South Northants DC. This report forms that record.