Building record WTM 076 - The Old Queens, Long Green

Formerly the Queen’s Head Public House, the Old Queens is a timber-framed structure of great historic interest that dates in part from the late-15th century. When first built around 1460 it contained a hall that was open to its roof in the manner of a barn and heated in the medieval tradition by a bonfire-like open hearth burning on its clay floor. Only a single wall of this early house survived a series of extensive modernisations in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the present building is a remarkable social document which illustrates the dramatic change in the nature of English domestic life during the same period. The 15th century wall remains heavily encrusted with ancient soot from the open hearth, and reveals the smoky nature of the original hall. A chimney and ceiling were inserted into the hall during the mid-16th century, and the floored parlour to its left was lengthened and raised to accommodate both a further new chimney and the fashionable ‘posted’ beds of the day. The walls of the hall were rebuilt in turn a century later, albeit retaining the earlier ceiling, in order to match the height of the 16th century parlour and so unify the external appearance of the house once more. At some point the two storage rooms that probably adjoined the right-hand gable of the medieval house were demolished and a further extension added to the left, although the latter was removed in the 1970s (S1).