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Picture source: Hania Franek

The Countryman was situated on the A10. The building is grade-II listed and dates from the 17th century. It was a coaching inn called the Red Lion until 1975. The pub did not re-open following the 2023 Covid lockdown.

Listed building details:

House, now a PH. C16 or early C17, mid/late C17 interior chimney and inserted floor in middle part, S part rebuilt in early C18 (probably when sold in 1719 as the Red Lion PH to Mr. Beale), N part rebuilt in C18, W and S sides of building cased in brick and gable added to N part probably when adjoining cottages cleared in 1913. Name changed in later C20. Timber frame roughcast but W front and S end cased in painted brick. Steep pitched roof with rear outshut, thatched in Buckler dwg of 1841 (HRO) but now slated. Gabled tiled porch. A 2-storeys, 3-cells, internal chimney plan house facing W with shorter rear outshut, chimney a third from S end, and higher floor levels in N part with C19 external gable chimney. 2-bay middle part entered next N end, with back to back fireplaces in stack. 3 windows W front has paired recessed Gd floor sash windows joined under segmental arches, and 2-light casement windows over, all with small panes. Glazed gabled porch with high brick sill. Single-storey flat-roofed small block against N gable. Interior has exposed timbers, with jowled posts, cut away curved braces on 1st floor, straight tension braces in rear wall, chamfered axial beams and squared joists on ground floor, heavy studs of partition wall with sill-plate in middle part and later cross-beam on higher N part. Good, chamfered, 3-centred arched late C17 red brick fireplace to upper room at S end. Lintel to open fireplace to bar said to have been inscribed '1743' but now recently carved with date 1663 in relief. (Branch Johnson (1962) 46).

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