NHER 4761 (Building record) - The Rushcutters Inn (formerly Boat and Bottle)

March 1985. Listed, Grade II.
Listing Description excerpt:
"House, now public house and restaurant. 16th century, altered 18th and late 20th century. Timber-framed with brick infill, some nogging. Tiled roof. Entire ground floor altered 20th century. First floor left with three renewed two-light casements. Stepped 18th-century external stack. At right large late 16th-century stepped external stack. Gabled roof, hipped to west. East gable with internal stack."
Information from (S1).
Please consult the National Heritage List for England (S1) for the current listing details.
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 23 May 2022.

July 1975. Field Observation.
Visited by E. Rose (NAU).
'Boat and Bottle' PH, formerly 'Thorpe Gardens'; 'Cattermole's Gardens' in 1842. Some of original house remains -half-timbered upper storey with brick nogging on north, and huge brick chimney stack with small diamond-shaped illegible plaque. Three-storeyed projecting porch, but almost entirely hidden by recent unsympathetic extensions. Inside some beams may remain but plastic imitations crowd them out. Parish Council guide to Thorpe of c.1920 states that some of the beams have Latin inscriptions, and thus building was said to have been a monastery (perhaps beams came from a Norwich monastery at the Dissolution? - date of house could be right). Formerly had a well-known sign showing a boar with words 'Het Varke' ( 'The Boar" in Dutch) - significance unknown but pre 19th century. In 1954 a priest's hole was said to have been discovered, but was later identified as a latrine.
No 48 Yarmouth Road (NHER 46029) may be considered as a group with this house; though as it is 18th to 19th century in date it may have originated in an outbuilding of the original building. It has been recently restored.
Compiled by E. Rose (NAU), 26 July 1975. Information from record card (S2).
P. Watkins (HES), 23 May 2022.

For an early drawing, including two hexagonal chimney stacks at west end, see (S3).
Compiled by E. Rose (NAU). Information from record card (S2).
P. Watkins (HES), 23 May 2022.

Public house, perhaps always an inn. Timber framed with two rearwall stacks; beams in style of around 1520 but possibility of reuse. Porch tower at acute angle to building. East gable wall and stack perhaps 17th-century alteration, once connected to now demolished adjacent building. 19th-century west crosswing. Much 20th-century alteration. Surrounding perimeter wall, part incorporated in No 48 Yarmouth Road (NHER 46029), contains large quantities of reused medieval masonry, and brick arches. Alternative interpretation as 17th-century house and warehouse.
Compiled by E. Rose (NLA), 16 January and 22 July 1998.

1923. Stray find.
Neolithic flint axe found.

May-June 1998. Building Survey.
The building comprises a six-bay timber frame with a contemporary returned brick and flint gable-end incorporating chimney stacks with angled shafts which probably indicates an early 17th century date. The roll-moulded beams could suggest a 16th century date but the sophisticated spandrel-shaped stops also indicate that this is a 17th century building. The principal trusses have a cambered tie-beam with arched braces which are numbered from east to west. The roof trusses are mainly complete with the occasional purlin or wind brace missing. The large western stack was probably added during the 17th century and the wide hearth suggests that it was used for cooking.
See report (S2) for further details.
S. Howard (HES), 27 October 2010.