The Kings Tail is attached to the south wall of the old Kings Head Hotel in Church Street (the medieval framing and windows of which were exposed by us during the conversion). Formerly a pair of houses built in the early 19th century and converted to a house and a shop. This was the village undertaker’s premises with a cottage in the grounds used as the coffin maker’s workshop (The Coffin Shop). We remember the front elevation being rebuilt by the previous owners of the Kings Head Hotel (you can see where they ran out of original brickwork at the top of the elevation, so we painted out the fletton brickwork to match). Comprising three storeys and two parallel roof ranges it has two 16-pane sashes with cambered heads at 2nd floor level below a modillion eaves cornice. At first floor level there are splayed bays descending to door cases also in splayed bays. In the late 19th century, a shop front was inserted between the bays. The shop front has elegant frames and stained glass in four top lights. The house is fronted by a paved courtyard with two Cupressus Sempervirens Pyramidalis (which we planted) along with iron railings.
It was derelict when we purchased the house from a developer owning the Kings Head Hotel, you could see the roofing felt 3 storeys above as you entered at ground floor, no staircase. We found 2 wells during the works one under the main staircase which we cleaned out, the other larger diameter in the garden we left for subsequent owners to continue excavation. We removed the OPC render from the gable end and repointed it in lime mortar, replaced the cracked chimney pots with crown pots and square section cast iron ware and new hopper heads.
David Edgar carried out most of the refurbishment work for us from 1996 -2000
