Summary
Former coaching inn, constructed in the C17 or earlier, re-fronted around 1835, now a public house.
Reasons for Designation
The Rose Inn is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a distinctive historic commercial building, which contributes strongly to the architectural character and diversity of Bedford’s historic High Street.
Historic interest:
* for the contribution it makes to the evolution of the historic High Street and development of the town.
Group value:
* for its strong historic and functional group value with other listed buildings on High Street.
History
Bedford lies in the shallow valley of the River Great Ouse, and from the Middle Saxon period, evidence appears for the beginnings of a settlement at ‘Beda’s ford’, a key river crossing point. The Middle Saxon core of Bedford developed on the north side of the river with an early street pattern (still recognisable) and was surrounded by a defensive ditch. In the C10 and C11, Bedford was important both as a trading centre, with coins minted in the town, and as the central burh of the shire. The town’s main north-south route, comprising what is now High Street to the north of the river and St Mary’s and St John’s Streets to the south of the river, was developed by this time. After 1066, Bedford became a stronghold of the new Norman regime and during the reign of William II, a motte and bailey castle was built in a strategic position on the north bank of the river and then rebuilt in stone. A period of unrest, however, led to a siege of the castle in 1224 and, when it fell, Henry III ordered it to be dismantled. Despite political struggles, the town experienced a period of consolidation during the Norman and Medieval periods, when local commerce flourished and religious houses and hospitals were founded. The population of the town was decimated by the Black Death in the C14, and a new river crossing at Great Barford undermined the local economy by drawing traffic and trade away from the town. There was little further growth and the town was largely contained within its Saxon framework, as can be seen from John Speed’s map of Bedford dated 1610.
The dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII dealt a further blow to the town’s prosperity but its fortunes began to revive with the receipt of letters patent from Edward VI, allowing the foundation of a grammar school. Bedford also benefitted from the River Navigation Act, which made the River Great Ouse navigable between Bedford and King’s Lynn (completed in 1689). The town became the headquarters of Cromwell’s army between 1646 and 1647 and the puritan influence established during the Civil War lived on after the Declaration of Indulgence in 1672 when the town became a centre for non-conformist preachers such as John Bunyan. Despite this prosperity, Bedford remained of modest size through to the end of the C18, as illustrated on Thomas Jefferys’ map of 1765. An Improvement Act in 1803 allowed for the erection of a new river bridge between 1811 and 1813 (widened in 1938), and the clearance of the Market Square. Continuing prosperity in the early C19 was accompanied by modest growth, but by far the most dramatic expansion of Bedford followed the building of the Midland Railway in 1873, linking the town with London, and associated industrialisation. In the early years of the C20, some houses in the town centre were replaced by department stores, banks and cinemas to serve the expanding population; The Arcade was built and other properties in and around the centre were converted to shops and offices. The High Street is characterised by narrow three and four-storey frontages, with long buildings, closes and yards occupying medieval burgage plots to the rear, those on the eastern side of High Street being particularly long.
The Rose is one of the oldest public houses in Bedford, having been an inn since at least the early C16. Deeds from the archive of the Dukes of Bedford indicate that an inn existed on the site by 1546, and inheritance and sales documents survive from the mid-C16 onwards. The Rose was sold to the Duke of Bedford in 1761 for £315, who leased the inn to Nash and Company. Correspondence regarding potential improvements in 1835 described the Rose as being in ‘the most ruinous state’ with a call to address the ‘repairs and dilapidations’ there. A letter of 1836 shows the repairs were about to start or underway at a cost of £400, and indicates the building was most likely re-fronted at that time. The Duke of Bedford’s estate sold the Rose in 1841, and in 1870 a billiard room and other additions were made to the rear (east) of the public house. The Ordnance Survey (OS) Town Plan for Bedford published in 1884 illustrates the usefulness of the passage through the south end of the coaching inn to Rose Yard to the east, which at that time had a smithy and provided easy access through to Castle Lane. A photograph of the building around 1963 shows the ground floor window as having a substantial mullion and transom, creating four lights; this was replaced by a tripartite window in the late C20. At the end of the C20 it was briefly renamed the Hog’s Head, and later Compton’s, before returning to its ancient name.
Details
Former coaching inn, constructed in the C17 or earlier, re-fronted around 1835, now a public house.
MATERIALS: the roof has a Welsh slate covering and the walls are stuccoed.
PLAN: it is a long rectangular-plan building facing west to High Street.
DESCRIPTION: the former inn is three storeys in height and two bays wide, having a pitched roof with a Welsh slate covering and oversailing eaves continuous with number 43 to the south. The front elevation to High Street, re-fronted around 1835, is stuccoed with plain quoins. A carriageway passes through the south end of the building to Rose Yard. The first and second floors have casement windows, likely replaced in the late C19 or early C20, with shallow curved stuccowork under the sills; the first-floor windows each have a shallow awning. The ground floor has a tripartite sash window, which replaced a mullioned and transomed window in the late C20. Within the passageway, a former door opening was replaced by a sash window in the late C20. The ground floor has a plain corniced fascia, with glazed tiles applied around 2018.
