SNN114807 - A record of fabric exposed during works to an outbuilding at 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. To its rear is a stone outbuilding, now detached but once at the end of a service wing leading off the main building. The whole property is Grade II-listed and stands within the town’s conservation area. By 2019, when it was acquired by new owners, the main building had been unoccupied for many years, and had long since entered a poor state of repair with some serious underlying structural problems. The outbuilding was in a worse condition, with a collapsing roof. The new owners’ intention is to restore the building complex and return it to residential use. After the new owners purchased the building targeted stripping out in the main building (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 be made of the newly-exposed historic fabric in the main building, and of the outbuilding, to English Heritage Level 2 standards, based on WSIs submitted to South Northants DC. Separate reports have been prepared on the two structures.