Monument record 15826 - Site of The Robin Hood Inn, formerly Buglawton Court Room

<1> Aeon Archaeology, 2023, The Robin Hood Inn, Buxton Road, Congleton, Cheshire, CW12 3PE: Historic Building Record Level 2, R4675 (Client Report). SCH9399.

A level 2 historic building record was undertaken for The Robin Hood Inn, formerly the Buglawton Court Room, Buxton Road, Congleton, Cheshire, CW12 3PE, in advance of its demolition and re-development of the site. The building is depicted on the 1841 Tithe Map as a house and meadow. It has seen much development over the years – with four discernible phases of construction being evident. The primary phase (1st Phase) was a north-west to south-east aligned building which was the Buglawton Court Room. This is represented by the rough cut, sandstone blocks which are bonded by lime mortar, these constitute the entirety of the south-east facing gable (also the north-east elevation & fireplace, observed internally), and lower 2/3rds of the south-western elevation (late 18th century 1787).

The second phase of building involved the rebuilding of part of the south-western elevation as well as it being heightened by nineteen further brick courses. It is likely accompanied by the construction of a new roof (between 1787-1873). Either as part of this rebuilding work, or as a phase of building soon after, the Robin Hood Inn was built to the north-west out of red-brick bonded by Portland cement, at this time the date stone (which reads: Buglawton, Court Rooms, 1787) appears to have been preserved by the builders and set within the left-hand side of the south-western elevation. Subsequent to this, but still within the date range (1787-1873) a single storey, red-brick addition (3rd Phase) was added to the north western elevation, abutting the other building phases. Finally, a large dining extension with a kitchen, beer cellar and storage rooms were added to the north-west, this was built out of modern materials sometime after 1980 (4th Phase).

Within the games room of the former pub, the walls were constructed of sandstone rubble reflecting the choice of material on the exterior building, suggesting that it is likely that this portion of the former 18th century courthouse still survived here. The court room was represented in this part of the building by the sandstone fabric. Furthermore, the window in the south-western gable appeared to be original, with a former doorway to the left (in the south-west elevation) having been blocked up. There was also the rear of a chimney breast in the room, which formed part of the north-west elevation, this was constructed from the same type of sandstone rubble seen on the other elevations of the games room, and could have been an original feature. The positioning and orientation of the chimney may offer a hint to the former layout of the court room, as it faced into the public bar of the Inn, suggesting that, prior to the construction of the Robin Hood Inn, this was another room within the courthouse. In addition, there was another original doorway which permitted access from the north-east of the building into the courthouse. The ceiling in this room consisted of a large hand-hewn wooden beam, into which floor joists had been hand-notched by a carpenter – this ceiling/floor was likely installed as part of the refurbishment of the building when it was heightened in redbrick. Similarly, the ceiling in the public bar appeared as if it may have been contemporary with the date of the Inn’s construction (2nd Phase). The massive single supporting beam of the north-western ceiling within the public bar, was ostensibly hand-hewn from a single tree trunk, and the carpentry joints for the floor joists were also suggestive of chisel and adze work. At the northern end the beam had been supported on a hand-hewn upright post and been jointed to a shorter hand-hewn beam, which extended into the footprint of the mono-pitch, red-brick extension (3rd Phase). This extension of the first-floor joist and beam work, looks to have been facilitated by the necessity to extend the public bar – creating the L shape in plan which prevailed at the time of the survey.