Building record 1121500000 - THE PHOENIX, STEEPLE CLAYDON

Grade II. Public house. C17-C18, extended C19. Whitewashed brick with timber framing to first floor of central section. Thatched roof hipped to left. Brick stacks to right gable and left of timber framed section. Barred wooden casements. Central section has 1½ storeys, 2 bays, irregular casements and C20 door in wooden surround to right. Phoenix fire insurance plaque to centre. Left-hand bay has one storey and cellar, 3-light C20 casement and weatherboarded extension to left. Right-hand bay of 2 storeys has 3-light casement to ground floor and paired casement above. C20 single storey extensions of no special interest attached to rear right-hand corner. Small thatched outbuilding with shop window is attached to front at left. RCHM II p. 273 Mon.8 (B1).
Historic building recording carried out in May 2019 by Bancroft Heritage Services during conversion to residential use, concluded that the earliest parts of the building date from the 17th century and comprise a box-framed, thatched structure of 1½ storeys. Though much of the original framing has been replaced with brick, some the original gable end frame remains on the first floor rooms, along with early wattle and daub. Another distinctive original feature is the large fireplace in the ground floor middle room which retains several original niches (recently restored) in its rear wall, and also a small window or opening to one side. The historical evidence shows the building started life as a village homestead, and did not become a public house until the first half of the 19th century, the first record of the ‘Phoenix Inn’ dating to 1853. It seems likely that a two-storey brick extension was added to the west end of the building at this time and also that the east end was extensively modified to create the cellar and the arrangement of rooms on the floor above, including the rear stairs. Much of the replacement of the original timber frame with brick probably also dates from this period. The name of the inn derives from the fire insurance plaque on the front wall, which is probably of early 19th-century date. During the later 19th and early 20th centuries the ‘Phoenix Inn’ appears to have continued to trade without much change, other than a series of extensions to the rear, and extensions continued to be added up to the end of the 20th century. The pub closed in 2016. See report for detail (B2).