Building record SSH 025 - The Duke of Marlborough, Main Road

The Duke of Marlborough Public House occupies a conspicuous crossroads site at the junction of Chapel Lane and Main Road in what was formerly the hamlet of Upper Street in Somersham. Listed at grade II the timber-framed building was recorded by its present name in 1821, although subsequently known as the Marlboro Head, but contains several features that suggest it was functioning as an inn by the beginning of the 17th century. The business closed in 2014 but was recently purchased and re-opened by the local community.

The timber frame consists of three principal phases, the oldest of which dates from the early years of the 15th century and formed a three-bay service cross-wing that faced Church lane and belonged to a barn-like open hall on its right. The front service door is still in use, although the internal partition between the two-bay front room and the single-bay room to the rear has been removed. The open hall was set back from the road by one bay, as revealed by original windows and the pattern of weathering to the cross-wing’s external timbers, but appears to have been demolished early in the 19th century when the present lean-to ‘office’ was built on its site. This lean-to re-uses medieval rafters, heavily encrusted with soot from an open hearth, that were almost certainly salvaged from the hall. The cross-wing retains a fine and picturesque jettied facade, an intact crown-post roof, and the original first-floor partition that divided the front bay from the rest. Its rear gable is a rare survival that illustrates the external appearance of local buildings in the 15th century (where it has been perfectly preserved by a late-15th or early-16th century extension of two bays). The roof and first-floor walls of this extension are also intact but the rear section of the entire cross-wing is now either lost or obscured within a modern bar area that was inserted in recent years in conjunction with a series of extensions.

Early in the 17th century a new range was added to the Main Street side of the medieval cross-wing, blocking at least one original window (contrary to the listing description which interprets it as a rebuilt hall). This extension retains a fine arched fireplace but its original layout was highly unusual, with a small, triangular room adjoining its Main Street gable (reflecting the acute angle of the road junction), and a complete lack of ground-floor windows against Church Lane. A fireplace was inserted into the medieval front service room at the same time. These features differ significantly from the domestic norm and suggest the extension was intended to provide additional accommodation for an inn. Its original blind elevation against Church Lane is reflected in the characterful and highly distinctive appearance of the present building, which retains large areas of blank wall in a manner that is typical of 19th century inns as shown in early photographs, but which rarely survives today (S1).