Red Lion

Summary

A public house dating to the early C18 and altered in the C20.

Reasons for Designation

The Red Lion, a public house dating to the early C18 and altered in the C20, is listed for the following principal reasons:

Architectural Interest:

* for its fabric dating from the C18.

Group Value:

* for the functional group value it shares with other Georgian buildings close by all of which were designed to attract customers of high status and contribute to Swaffham’s fashionable Market Place, especially number 85 Market Place (listed at Grade II, National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entry 1269565, and 83 and 83a Market Place (listed at Grade II, NHLE entry 1269564).

History

Swaffham’s significance in the medieval period stemmed from its position on the crossroads of the main routes from London, Norwich and King’s Lynn. The first written record of a market in the town, which was established on a triangular-shaped area formed by the convergence of the aforementioned roads, was in 1215 when King John issued a royal writ to the Sherriff of Norfolk to abolish it should it ‘damage the market in Dunham’. It was never abolished and expanded rapidly. The Market Place was probably open to the church on its east side, but later C17 development closed this off, while the development of The Shambles in the middle in the late C18/early C19, further reduced the size of the open space. From the mid-C18, for a period of just over a hundred years, Swaffham became one of the most populous parishes in Norfolk and one of the most fashionable centres in the county, attracting many leading West Norfolk Families. A racecourse had been established by 1628, the Assembly Rooms were constructed in 1776-1778, subsequently extended and modernised in 1817, and George Walpole, the Third Earl of Orford (1730-1791), founded a coursing club in 1786. During this period of prosperity much rebuilding took place around the Market Place and the overall character of the town is primarily of mid-late Georgian in date, although there is evidence for C16-C17 work behind many façades. Further rebuilding also took place after ‘The Great Fire of Swaffham’, which probably started in the vicinity of the Blue Boar Inn (now the White Hart) on the afternoon of 14 November 1775, when it was set ablaze by a spark from a nearby blacksmith’s workshop. Fire soon engulfed the densely packed houses and workshops behind the inn and along London Road, with 22 buildings being completely destroyed and a further two badly damaged. The town continued to expand in the C19 when its population increased from 2,200 in 1800 to 3,350 in 1845. It also became an important local administrative centre during this period and acquired several notable buildings, including a National School (1838), Shire Hall (1839) and Corn Hall (1858).

It is thought there has been a public house called the Red Lion Inn on this site since 1694 but the current building dates to the early C18. The earliest records are from 1783. The 1840 Tithe Award describes it as the ‘Red Lion Public House and Yards’, owned and occupied by Rebecca Barker. The accompanying map shows the building facing west onto the Market Place with a wide rectangular plan and rear wing on the north end, and a series of detached outbuildings. A similar configuration is shown on the historic Ordnance Survey maps of 1884, 1905 and 1928. One family, the Dickersons, were licensees of the Red Lion for over 70 years; and it was run by Emma Jane Dickerson from 1922 until her death in 1956, at the age of 95. The public house was altered in the C20, and the ground floor opened up into a single space in the late C20.

Details

Public house dating to the early C18 and altered in the C20.

MATERIALS: pebble-dashed and colourwashed flint and brick, and a roof covering of pantiles.

PLAN: the building faces west onto the Market Place and has a wide rectangular plan with a long rear north wing.

EXTERIOR: the two-storey public house has a pitched roof with an internal gable-end chimney stack on the left side and a second stack on the rear roof slope. The ground floor is lit by four two-over-two-pane horned sash windows, set within slightly recessed openings with cambered heads. A C20 wooden door with upper glazed panels is between the third and fourth windows. The first floor is lit by three similar sashes, situated immediately beneath the eaves. A decorative cast iron swinging sign support projects from the eaves between the first and middle windows.

INTERIOR: the ground floor has been opened up into a single space in the late C20.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

460631

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Wilson, B, The Buildings of England: Norfolk 2: North-West and South, (2002)
Swaffham History Group, , The Book of Swaffham: The Story of a Norfolk Market Town, (2021)

Other
Unpublished research – Swaffham Cultural Consortium and Swaffham History Group.

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