Crown Hotel | |
---|---|
Location | 24–26 High Street, Nantwich, Cheshire, England |
Coordinates | 53°04′03″N2°31′22″W / 53.0674°N 2.5227°W |
Built | c. 1583 |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
Designated | 19 April 1948 |
Reference no. | 56617 |
The Crown Hotel, also known as the Crown Inn, is a timber-framed, black-and-white hotel and public house located at 24 High Street in the town of Nantwich in Cheshire, England. The present building dates from shortly after 1583. One of three buildings in Nantwich to be listed at grade I, the listing describes the Crown Hotel as "an important late C16 building." [1]
The existing hotel was built on the site of an earlier inn of the same name, destroyed in the Great Fire of Nantwich of 1583. This appears to have been constructed on an earlier industrial site, including a medieval tannery and an 11–12th century salt working. The area has also been speculated to have been the location of Nantwich Castle.
It has been speculated that the site, which forms a high point in the town adjacent to the river, might have been the location of Nantwich Castle, which was built before 1180. Excavations behind the Crown Hotel in 1978 found evidence of terracing, perhaps representing a platform or mound, as well as a pre-medieval ditch, which might have formed the outer bailey of the castle. Roman pottery was also found in these excavations, including Samian ware and roof tiles. [2]
The excavations of 1978 found medieval leather shoes and numerous leather offcuts, suggesting a tannery was located on the site during this period. A D-shaped oak timber was found which might have formed part of a tanning bench, as well as wooden bowls and platters and medieval pottery. [2] Large amounts of burnt charcoal, coal and clay dating from the early post-Medieval period were uncovered; they are believed to represent an 11–12th century salt working on the site. [2] [3]
The Crown was formerly the principal inn of Nantwich. [1] Landlord Roger Crockett was murdered in a brawl on 19 December 1572, in a case that involved many of the town's gentry and was heard in the Star Chamber. [4] The original "Crowne" was one of seven inns destroyed in the Great Fire of Nantwich of 1583. The proprietor at the time of the fire was Robert Crockett. [5]
The present building is known to have been rebuilt shortly after the date of the fire. [1] [6] The cost of £313 13s 4d was the greatest of all the buildings rebuilt at that time; £240 was contributed by Crockett. [7] The rebuilt Crown was a coaching inn on the Chester to London road. [8] During the Civil War, the inn was used as a place of worship, while the parish church was a prison. [9] [10] The Duke of Monmouth dined at the Crown in 1682. [1]
During part of the 18th century, the inn was known as the "Crown and Sceptre". [11] [12] The "Crown Inn Lodge", Nantwich's second Masonic Lodge, was founded in 1794 by Sir Robert Salusbury Cotton, MP for the county of Cheshire, and presumably met at the Crown; it had 28 members in 1799. [13] Plays were put on in the inn's assembly room until a theatre was built in the early 19th century. [14] [15] The Crown is described in an 1874 directory as a "Commercial Inn and Posting House", one of two in the town (the other being the Lamb Hotel on Hospital Street). [16] The Crown was run by the Piggott family for over 30 years from the late 1870s. Thomas Piggott, landlord in 1881, was the great grandfather of well-known jockey Lester Piggott. [17]
The Crown Hotel is a black-and-white, timber-framed and plaster three-storey building with a tiled roof. [1] The street-facing front, described by Nikolaus Pevsner as "impressive", is flat and features close studding with a middle rail. [6] [18] Unlike many buildings of a similar date in the town, it lacks ornamental panelling. [18] Each storey has small overhangs, with carved corbels (brackets). [1] All three storeys have restored mullioned and transomed windows in oak. [1] The second (top) floor features unusual continuous windows along the entire front. [1] [6] [19]
To the left of the street front is a covered passage known as Crown Mews, which was the entrance to the inn's stables at the rear. On the left of the passage is a recessed shop front; formerly a coffee shop, as of 2009 it houses a jeweller's. [1] [8]
The interior is in good condition. The ground floor features an 18th-century enclosed bar and a wall panel showing the original wattle and daub construction. [1] [10] A large beam supported by scrollwork forms an archway to the rear, where there is an 18th-century assembly room. [1] [6] [19] An iron mantrap is mounted on the wall to the rear of the archway. [19] The second storey was originally a single gallery and was partitioned, probably in the 18th century. [1]
As of 2009, the Crown is an eighteen-bedroom hotel and public house and restaurant. [20] It renovated its restaurant to a grill restaurant [21] in January 2016 and now serves a range of grilled meats, fish and other dishes. The Crown is licensed for civil wedding ceremonies. [22]
Nantwich is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It has among the highest concentrations of listed buildings in England, with notably good examples of Tudor and Georgian architecture. It had a population of 14,045 in 2021.
Churche's Mansion is a timber-framed, black-and-white Elizabethan mansion house at the eastern end of Hospital Street in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. The Grade I listed building dates from 1577, and is one of the very few to have survived the Great Fire of Nantwich in 1583.
Close studding is a form of timber work used in timber-framed buildings in which vertical timbers (studs) are set close together, dividing the wall into narrow panels. Rather than being a structural feature, the primary aim of close studding is to produce an impressive front.
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Crewe Almshouses or Crewe's Almshouses is a terrace of seven former almshouses at the end of Beam Street in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. The present building was erected in 1767 by John Crewe, later first Baron Crewe, and is listed at grade II. It has a central projecting section topped by a pediment, with a stone doorway flanked with Tuscan columns. The present almshouses stand on the site of a 16th-century building, originally the mansion of the Mainwaring family and later the town's House of Correction and workhouse.
The Lamb Hotel, now known as Chatterton House, is a former public house in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. It is located on the north side of Hospital Street, at the junction with Church Lane. The present building by Thomas Bower dates from 1861 and is listed at grade II; Nikolaus Pevsner describes it as "decent" and "staid".
140–142 Hospital Street, sometimes known as Hospital House, is a substantial townhouse in Nantwich, Cheshire, England, located on the south side of Hospital Street. The building is listed at grade II. It was built in the late 16th century by John Crewe, a tanner, whose sons Randolph and Thomas both served as the Speaker of the House of Commons. The original timber-framed, close-studded façade has been concealed by alterations during the late 17th century; these include the addition of small-paned casement windows, some of which contain old heraldic stained glass. The building was further altered and extended in the 18th century, with the addition of two Gothic-style entrances. Later occupants include the architect, Thomas Bower, and the building remains in residential use.
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The Rookery, or 125 Hospital Street, is a substantial Georgian townhouse in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. It is at the end of Hospital Street, on the north side, at the junction with Millstone Lane. The existing building dates from the mid-18th century and is listed at grade II; English Heritage describes it as "good" in the listing. Nikolaus Pevsner describes it as "square and stately." It incorporates an earlier timber-framed house at the rear, which probably dates from the late 16th or early 17th century.
The Tollemache Almshouses, also known as the Wilbraham Almshouses or Wilbraham's Almshouses, are six former almshouses in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. They are in two blocks of three cottages each, located on the north side of Welsh Row at numbers 118–128. The present buildings, which are listed at grade II, were erected in 1870 by John Tollemache to replace adjacent almshouses founded by Sir Roger Wilbraham in 1613. The almshouses were modernised in 1980 and remain in residential use. The Hospital of St Lawrence, a medieval house for lepers, was possibly on or near the site of the present almshouses.
The Hospital of St Lawrence, variously known as St Lawrence's Hospital, the Hospice of St Lawrence and the free Chapel and Hospice of St Lawrence and St James, was a medieval house for lepers outside the town of Nantwich, Cheshire, England. It was located to the west of the town, on what is now Welsh Row, within the parish of Acton. St Lawrence's later became a hospital for the infirm poor. Dissolved in 1548, the hospital's land and property was purchased by the Wright family. One of its buildings was subsequently used for dwellings.
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The Porch House, formerly sometimes the Porche House, is a large Georgian house, dating from the late 18th century, in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. It is listed at grade II. Located at numbers 64A and 64B on the north side of Welsh Row, it is entered via its former stable entrance, The Gateway. Currently divided into two houses, the Porch House has previously served as a day and boarding school, and as a house for Belgian refugees. The existing building stands on the site of a 15th-century mansion of the same name.
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Nantwich Castle was a Norman castle in Nantwich, Cheshire, England, built before 1180 to guard a ford across the River Weaver. The castle is first documented in 1288. It was last recorded in 1462, and was in ruins by 1485. No trace now remains above ground; excavations in 1978 near the Crown Inn uncovered terracing and two ditches, one or both of which possibly formed the castle's bailey.
The Queen's Aid House, or 41 High Street, is a timber-framed, black-and-white Elizabethan merchant's house in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. It is on the High Street immediately off the town square and opposite the junction with Castle Street. It is listed at grade II. Built shortly after the fire of 1583 by Thomas Cleese, a local craftsman, it has three storeys with attics, and features ornamental panelling, overhangs or jetties at each storey, and a 19th-century oriel window. The building is best known for its contemporary inscription commemorating Elizabeth I's aid in rebuilding the town, which gives the building its name. It has been used as a café, as well as various types of shop.
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