Building record 1107400000 - NEW INN FARMHOUSE

Grade II+. Former coaching inn, now farmhouse. 1717-19, with early-C19 alterations. Attributed to Thomas Harris of Cublington, foreman for Sir John Vanbrugh who co-ordinated the early building work at Stowe, and built for Lord Cobham. Front of chequered brick with moulded brick cornice and stringcourse. Hipped tiled roof with ridge chimneystacks to each end. 2 storeys and attic range with single storey range of outbuildings behind.
EXTERIOR: FRONT elevation of 5 bays with early-C19 sash windows, tripartite to central bays, ground floor and upper centre openings have brick cambered arches. 2 hipped dormers with 3-light leaded casements. Central carriage opening. REAR elevation to courtyard is much as it appears in an 1809 drawing, with advanced bays to each end with hipped roofs, to left a canted bay window with sashes. OUTBUILDINGS to left, the brewhouse with ridge stack and end stack, timber framing to gable end, and dairy to outside. To right, stable with outer wall of coursed ironstone. Outbuildings continue to rear with coach house, timber-framed with brick infill and brick, but dilapidated with roof collapse at time of re-inspection (November 2003).
INTERIOR:.FARMHOUSE has entrance to each wing under carriage entrance through 6-panel door with overlight to a corridor. To left wing, stick baluster staircase. To right wing, rear room with bay window to courtyard has arched recess, ogee gothic arched cupboard, reeded chair rails and chimneypieces from early-C19 re-fitting. Service bell system in corridor. To right end, boxed-in stair. 4-panel and 6-panel doors with architraves throughout. Heavy oak roof structure.
OUTBUILDINGS include heavy open fireplace to stable range, fireplace to brewhouse, and low brick arches to dairy.
HISTORY: New Inn was built in 1717-19 for Viscount Cobham as part of his campaign to enlarge the mansion at Stowe and to create the extensive landscape, laid out by Charles Bridgeman with garden buildings by Sir John Vanbrugh. It is probably the first inn built for visitors to a house and garden, and is described repeatedly throughout the C18 and C19, not always favourably, in the visitors' letters and journals. In the 1860s when the garden closed to the public, New Inn became a farmhouse.
SOURCES: Bevington, Michael. 'Templa Quam Dilecta Number 1 The Grand Avenue, the Corinthian Arch and the Entrance Drives'.
Bevington, Michael. 'Stowe House' (2002).
Bevington, Michael. 'Stowe the Garden and Park' (1994).
G B Clarke, Ed. 'Description of Lord Cobham's Gardens at Stowe (1700-1750)'. Buckinghamshire Record Society No.26, 1990.
N. Pevsner and E. Williamson, 'The Buildings of England: Buckinghamshire' (1994) p674.
B Seeley. 'A Dialogue: containing a description of the garden of the rt. Hon. The Lord Viscount Cobham at Stow in Buckinghamshire'. London, 1751.
C.1809 drawing by J.C. Nattes.
Group Value with the Grade I Registered Stowe Park, and the numerous listed buildings on the grounds, many of which are Grade I (B1).
Included in English Heritage's Buildings ar Risk Register in 2006-11. Described as priority 1 (F): 'Repair scheme in progress and end use or user identified...' (B2,B5,B7,B9,B11).
Memories of former pupils of Stowe School about the School and local area during the Second World War. Robert Bennett recollected that 'Black market eggs and bacon could be bought from the stables of the New Inn, then for some reason called the Nevelry' (B3).
Detailed building recording report of main house and outbuildings (B4).
Samples for tree-ring dating (dendrochronology) were taken in July 2006. 5 timbers contained sapwood and so gave felling dates in specific years and seasons. 2 in spring 1717, 2 in summer 1717 and 1 in spring 1718. Other samples did not contain sapwood but gave a broad date range that agreed with the more specific dates (B6,B10).
Watching brief carried out by Northants Archaeology in July 2008 during test pitting recorded variations in depth and form of building foundations (B8).
Further 25 samples taken for tree-ring dating. 5 samples from the dairy roof were all felled in about 1550 and were probably all from the same woodland. 13 samples were all felled in 1782, dating a phase of alterations to the dairy roof and to the north stair tower, and all were probably from 2 separate woodlands. See report for details (B12).
Building recording and watching brief report, concentrating on the structural elements of the farm where they were to be opened up, altered or totally lost in the new works. The exercise revealed a very decayed complex with very many alterations since its construction, some of them arguably ill though-out and detrimental to the life of the building. The watching brief largely produced poor results, principally because the works involved small areas and narrow trenches through areas which seem to have contained very little.When first constructed, the complex was built as a lodging house for well-to-do visitors to Stowe Gardens, before later being converted to a dual role in and farm complex, before being fully converted to a farm in the mid 19th century. See report for full details (B13).
Illustrations relating to the 2010-11 building recording (B14).