Building record 1065700000 - The Kings Head, Church Road, and Pendyce House, Station Road

Grade II. Restaurant and public house with cottage attached at the NW end. NW wing incorporates 2 bays of a Medieval cruck building, remainder dating to the C16 and C17, all re-cased in red brick late C18-C19, with later alterations. SW front is mostly of red and vitreous brick with red brick dressings, with 2 right bays of white brick. SE front has roughcast and whitewashed upper storey. Old roof tiles, brick chimneys, that to centre of SW range C17 have 'V' pilasters. L-plan, 2 storeys. Long range to the SW is of 8 irregular bays. 2 bays to the right have C19 3-light barred wooden casements with small panes. Remaining bays have C20 wooden casements with segmental heads, some with leaded top lights. C20 double doors in 5th bay with wooden balcony over, another door to left. Lower range to left has carriage entry with flanking cruck trusses, the right bay containing part of another cruck. Left bay, No 8, has C20 casements that to ground floor a bow window with wide board door to left. SE front of 3 bays has barred horizontal sliding sashes to ground floor and 2 leaded casements above. C20 extensions in the rear angle. Interior shows the remains of timber frame with heavily jowled main posts and some diagonal braces. Ground floor room to the right of the main chimney has stop-chamfered spine beam and moulded fireplace lintel. Staircase has late 18th century turned balusters and a moulded handrail. RCHM II p157 Mon 10 (B1).
John Chenevix Trench's investigation of the complex in 1992 suggests that the Pendyce House consists of an aisled hall. He suggests that the two-bay hall originally had an in-line solar and service bays. Externally the house has the appearance of a superior yeoman or gentry house from the 18th century, but on the first floor are the upper halves of the two arcade posts of an aisled hall. In the roof are two crown posts, 7 feet apart. The eastern post is octagonal and elegantly moulded, the western is longer and plainer with chamfered corners. Perhaps around 1700 a short wing was added to the N side level with the chimney stack and containing a stair. The aisled hall is large in comparision with other such structures and hence of reasonable status. A Customal prepared for the Bishop of Winchester lists the tenants of the Manor of Ivinghoe, and from this document John Chenevix Trench suggests that the property was most likely built for the religious encumberant. The Manor had become known as the Manor of the Rectory of Ivinghoe by 1413 when it was passed from the Bishop of Winchester to the College of Bonhommes of Ashridge. The rents of Rectory Manor were worth £29 9s 10d in 1535 and a 140 acre holding (glebe land?) was associated with a farmhouse. In 1820 the house was listed as part of the parcel of land belonging to the Rectory along with the 'King Head, with yards… also the site of a certain barn hereto containing three bays, in Ivinghoe Street, commonly called the Kings Head Barn, lately pulled down'. The Kings Head Inn is now a separate property and was not explored, but the Pendyce house did extend into this area, probably as a barn, with two cruck trusses framing the entry to the yard (B2).
3 cruck trusses with single curve blades, truncated above the collar, passing the collar but with no upper structure. Source: T.P. Smith (B3).
Building survey and dendro-dating carried out in June 1989 suggest a less complicated development than that proposed by Chenevix Trench. The building was constructed as a two-bay (or longer) aisled hall house with a service or passage bay at the west end and a solar bay at the east end, using timber with a felling date range of 1250-1277. The presence of a further service bay at the west end was originally suggested by Chenevix Trench but appears to be a later extension. In
a second phase, the base cruck, the crown posts (one with a felling date range of 1288-1323) and collar purlin were inserted into the existing trusses and the service bay may have been added at this stage. Later work included removal of the south aisle, flooring of the hall and insertion of a central stack with a lobby entry; these changes were probably complete by the late 16th century (fireplace lintel and axial beam chamfered with bar & draw stop). The presumed solar bay was replaced in the seventeenth century by a two-bay cross-wing with a lean-to rear section corresponding to the profile of the hall rear aisle. See report for detail (B4).