The Crown Inn is a timber framed building of the late 15^th century with later alterations.  The Butcher’s Bar reflects the fact that part of the inn had been a butcher’s shop.  The Crown serves meals and real ales – RCH Pitchfork, Hook Norton Best Bitter and guest beers.

The project called for the recording of barns to the rear of the inn and archaeological monitoring of earthworks associated with conversion of the barns into dwellings. The main building was a typical 17th century threshing barn.

The barn rested on a stone plinth that was a metre deeper than ground level.  This substantial depth of footing may have been required because of the erosion of the clay subsoil by the nearby springs and the Rudhall Brook.

The southernmost truss of the barn was originally open framed.  Mortices on the southern faces of the posts here suggested the building originally continued southwards and the stone plinth on which it rested was much shallower than those on the other three sides.  The in-fill timbers were all either re-used or modern, again indicating that this was not originally an end frame.  It is possible that some of the in-fill timbers had been framing from the lost bay or bays to the south.

During the excavations around the barn for services, no evidence was found to say how many bays were lost, as the trenches were limited mainly to the edges of the stone plinth.  As the cart shed was to be retained, no trenches were dug in what was probably the best area to ascertain the true length of the original barn.

This timber-framed barn is a typical threshing barn of the 17^th Century built throughout the Marches and Gloucestershire.  The carpenter’s marks on the trusses were either scratched, chiselled or of a crescent shape, these types of marks usually date to the later part of the 17^th Century.

The adjoining cart or shelter shed, which is a much more modern design, is not shown on the Tithe Map of 1838 but is present on the 1886 OS map.  Therefore the building dates to around the middle or late 19^th Century.

The ground plan of the buildings – one or more bays had been lost on the southern (right) end of the original barn.  The building on the right replaced it or them.

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