Building record 10777 - No 44 Foregate Street, the former Royal Oak public house

No 44 Foregate Street is an early 17th century town house, later a public house known as the Royal Oak, currently in use as a shop. A jetty beam is inscribed 1601 AD : REBUILT 1920 AD. The ground floor has four modern stanchions clad as if they were posts with a shop front that is entirely late 20th century. The first floor has three rows of small frame panels with quatrefoil braces and a pargetted sign inscribed "YE OLDE ROYAL OAK HOTEL". The second floor is jettied. The present ground floor is set back from the line of the former building by a distance of 0.70m while the first floor jetties out by an equivalent distance and is supported by 6 brackets. The second floor extends a further 0.45m out and rests on 3 brackets. (1)

The house was largely remodelled in the 1920s during which several aspects of the original house was revealed. Oak panels removed from the front wall of the first floor revealed an old window frame with oak mullions while the oak panels themselves showed signs they had been split not cut with a saw. The rotten oak timbers removed from the original 17th century timber framing all showed evidence of having been used prior to their insertion into the building, possibly as ship timbers. The Jacobean fireplace was also recorded with oak fluted pilaster with carved capitals and some oak panels with a Jacobean design. (2)

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 469778 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

<2> Simpson F, 1926, The Royal Oak Inn, Chester (Article in Journal). SCH5700.