Summary
Inn, mid-C18 with possible earlier origins and a mid-C18 stable/coach house; C19 and C20 additions and alterations.
Reasons for Designation
The former White Hart Inn, of mid-C18 date with possible earlier origins and C19 and C20 additions and alterations, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as at least a mid-C18 building, it falls within the period before 1850 when most buildings that retain a significant proportion of their original fabric are likely to be regarded of special interest;
* significant original fabric is retained including the mass walling, the original roof structure and, despite interior alteration, the retention of some early features;
* a handsome and well-detailed main elevation, constructed in the local vernacular style using local materials, including red sandstone and Westmorland slate;
* one of many buildings within the town that were remodelled in the C18 during a period of rebuilding and renewal;
* the evolution of the building is legible including the suggestion that it evolved from an earlier cross-passage plan-form;
* the survival of an attached and associated contemporary stable/ coach house range contributes to the special interest of the inn.
Group value:
* it benefits from a spatial group value with numerous and diverse listed buildings in the vicinity, including a number of contemporary commercial buildings.
History
A building with the same footprint as the White Hart Inn is depicted on a plan of Appleby surveyed in 1754; it occupies a burgage plot owned by Sir James Lowther and tenanted by Robert Yarker. The depiction of the building has opposing entrances in the east and west walls, which suggest it had a cross-passage plan, and therefore has earlier, possibly C17 origins. This is supported by the presence of an off-centre main entrance that is out of alignment with the fenestration of the upper storeys, suggesting that an original lower building had been subsequently heightened or that the upper storeys have been re-fenestrated; ground floor beams and joists visible in the cellar of the building are also of early form. A less detailed plan of a similar, but probably slightly later date, depicts the White Hart with a narrow, linear rear extension, which probably housed the staircase; this range is also depicted with the same footprint on the 1843 Tithe map. The 1754 plan also depicts a detached building on the south side of the burgage plot, thought to be a stable/coach house range; the general appearance of this building, and its large size is consistent with an C18 date and it is considered to have been purpose-built to serve the White Hart Inn. It is thought to have consisted of a coach house to the west end, a stable with stalls to the centre and a possible tack room to the east end, with a hayloft/groom's accommodation over.
An early-C19 description lists the tenant as William Adamthwaite and records: ‘A dwelling house called the White Hart Inn with stables for ten horses, Butchers Shop and Slaughter House (and old Brew House in bad repair) a pig [big?] coac [coach?], and mulestable a garden. Two front rooms and two chambers, a good cellar and small back kitchen all in good repair and atticks open to the roof, a garden and [down to the road]'.
During the mid-to-later C19, the inn's rear extension was extended to the north and west: the former serving to extend the side passageway to the rear yard, and the latter bridging the gap between the main building and the detached stable range. In 1880 the tenancy of the White Hart was acquired by John Shaw, a joiner and cabinet maker who reopened it as a temperance hotel. Alterations during the C20 included: a re-fit of the pub ground floor which saw the insertion of a new fireplace, fixed bench seating to the windows and panelling to the lower walls (1930s), the addition of a further rear extension and an additional inserted staircase (later C20). There are early-C21 openings (unfinished) through the rear wall of the original building associated with sections of brick re-building, and much of the plaster from the ground floor walls and ceilings is missing. Alterations to the stable range during the C19 included the ceiling of the first floor and the insertion or enlargement of the first-floor windows. During the mid-C20 the ground floor was converted to apartments, and some of the original ground-floor windows were converted to doorways and additional ones inserted. The first floor was subsequently converted to a restaurant and kitchen.
Details
Inn with attached stable/coach house to the rear, mid-C18 with possible earlier origins; C19, C20 and early-C21 additions and alterations.
MATERIALS: red sandstone, rendered and painted; internal walls of sandstone rubble; mostly graduated Westmorland slate roofs.
PLAN: a rectangular original range oriented north to south, possibly originating from an earlier cross-passage house; rectangular rear extensions including a probable C18 stair turret. An attached covered passageway to the north end gives access to a rear yard with outbuildings.
EXTERIOR: the building is situated on the west side of Boroughgate on a site that slopes gently to the north. The main elevation has three storeys and three bays under a pitched roof with dressed stone end stacks, painted quoins and painted and dressed, flush window and door surrounds. There is an off-centre square-headed entrance with tethering rings to either side, fitted with a six-panel door, and flanked to either side by a two-light flat-faced mullioned window now boarded over. Set at a lower level at the right end, there is a boarded yard entrance, with a lintel that slightly overhangs the jambs, and a tethering ring to the left. The first and second floors each have three window openings, all fitted with two-over-two horned sliding sash frames. A pub sign is fixed to the upper left side of the building. The rear elevation comprises a number of extensions of varying heights including a two-storey, lean-to stair turret with a Westmorland slate roof, and an enlarged first floor window serving a metal fire-escape. To the left a later lean-to extension has a Welsh slate roof, and contains an entrance to the extended covered passageway; it is fitted with a four-panelled door (cut down from a six-panelled door) and there is a fanlight above, now blocked.
An C18 two-storey former stable and coach house of similar constructional materials to the inn is attached to the rear. It has a large, blocked segmental-arched coach opening with alternating jamb stones, flanked to the right by a square-headed entrance with similar jambs, and to the left by a single-light and a pair of two-light windows in plain, stone surrounds; at least one of these openings retains earlier alternating jamb stones. To the left end there is an entrance with alternating jamb stones, and a later, blocked entrance. The first floor has six-regularly spaced C19 inserted window openings.
SUBSIDIARY ITEM: to the front of the building there is a paved, split-level forecourt defined by a low stone wall with double-chamfered copings and late-C20 metal railings.
INTERIOR: the main entrance opens into a single large space on two levels, created by the opening out of an original room to either side of a full-width central passage. A central strip of late-C19/early-C20 geometric floor tiles indicates the position of a former central passage, and scars in the east wall and ceiling indicate the site of its former partitions. There are five substantial ceiling beams running from east to west. Remaining fixtures and fittings are early C20 and include a stone four-arched fireplace against the south wall (with a blocked doorway to the right), the remains of panelling to the left, and a fixed bench seat to each of the east windows. A cellar beneath the northern part of the room has a set of original, but modified, sandstone steps; within the cellar visible ground-floor beams and joists are of early form and may be of late-C17 date. Within the covered passageway to the rear yard there is an arched feature, interpreted as a fireplace flue or support. The rear extension comprises three small rooms. The south room is thought to be the former back kitchen with a fireplace with a large stone lintel in the east wall and an inserted stair to the first floor of the rear stable range. The central room houses a dog-leg staircase in its original position, and the north room has a large fireplace (range removed).
The upper floors were not inspected, but are understood to retain historic features including the presence of an earlier, blocked opening on the half landing to the first floor, exposed and boxed-in tie-beams to the three first-floor front rooms, one of which also retains the hearthstone of an earlier fireplace and one of which also has a re-used, stripped six-panel door. The exposed floor of the most southerly rear room retains some original wide floor boards. To the second floor there are exposed and boxed in tie-beams, and the roof structure (also visible in the attic space) comprises four simple tie-beam trusses with double purlins; some of the timbers suggest they have been re-used; rafters are C20.
The ground floor of the attached rear range was not inspected, but is understood to have been converted to apartments. The first floor has a large modern kitchen to the west end and the remainder of the space has a C20 decorative scheme and fittings.
MAPPING NOTE: the upper floors of the White Hart (34 Boroughgate) form a flying freehold above part of the ground floor of the neighbouring property (36 Boroughgate).
