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Golden Lion (HT)

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History of Golden Lion (HT)

Row of buildings from No. 21 North Street to No. 35 (The Golden Lion)

The Golden Lion pub is at one end of a very interesting row of cottages, with No.21 South Street at the other end. All are Grade II Listed buildings and are fine examples of weatherboarded timber cottages. This is a fascinating row of buildings and warrants some time spent looking at all the features.

There are records of a public house on the site of the Golden Lion going back to 1649, but most of this row of cottages are believed to date from the 18thcentury, possibly with earlier elements incorporated within them.

Apart from limited amounts of mudstone found on beaches and glacial or fluvial gravel, there is no naturally occurring stone in Essex that can be quarried. Brick started to be used in the 14th century, but its use was very limited and it was expensive.

By the 15thcentury its quality had improved, but it was still very expensive and was only used in higher status houses until the 19th Century when its use became much more widespread due to mass production being introduced. Indeed two local brickworks were set up, one of which made Essex Reds, whose use was widespread. However there was a large amount of timber readily available for construction and so in the past, the vast majority of buildings were timber framed.

In earlier times the frames were filled in with wattle and daub panels, but by the 18th Century weather boarding was used to cover earlier buildings to make them more fashionable and weather-proof, although wattle and daub was still often used as the infill underneath the weatherboarding and for internal walls. It was often plastered internally to hide it. In the 18thcentury, timber buildings were often constructed on cheap timber frames and weather boarding was used to conceal this.

As wood tends to rot or catch fire, timber buildings tend not to have survived. Those that did were often demolished and replaced with brick buildings where the owners could afford it. Rochford has a remarkable number of surviving timber buildings. Many like the row of cottages from Nos. 21 to 27 (odds) and No. 33 and the Golden Line are weatherboarded.

Others such as Nos. 29 to 31 (odds) have had brick façades put on their fronts in the 19thCentury. This was done where the owners could not afford to completely rebuild in brick, but wanted to keep up with latest fashion for them. Note how the front doors are on the same side of each cottage and how the upstairs windows have their tops very close to the eaves. This was the style of the first type of brick terrace built in the 19th century.

Later terraced cottages had their doors and halls adjoining and the windows lower down from the eaves. The brick façade here has been built to imitate this earlier style. The bricks are painted white, but are most likely Yellow Stock bricks built in Flemish Bond which is where each row of bricks has alternate headers (the end of the brick) and stretchers (the side of the brick) along it. This style was popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Its red-tiled roof, which includes a chimney stack, looks newer than the roof of No. 33 and the Golden Lion.

Nos. 21 to 23 is an interesting block. No. 17 is on the other side of Roche Close housing the Convenience Store, once the First Police Station. No. 19 seems therefore to be missing. No. 21 also appears to have two front doors with the right hand one no longer in use. This is because originally there were two cottages, No. 19 and No. 21. Part of No. 19 was demolished when Roche Close, originally a narrow lane known locally as Bishops Lane, next to it was widened. The remainder of No. 19 was incorporated into No. 21, thus giving the two front doors. No. 21 was originally Arthy’s Bakery and had a shop window next to the now defunct front door.

No. 19 had a bow window with a moulded frieze. When it was partially demolished and the remainder of Nos. 19/21 was turned into one dwelling, the bay window from No. 19 may have been used to replace the shop window of No. 21. Another old picture does show No. 21 with a bay window as well, but this is before it became a bakery so it probably isn’t the same one that is there now.

The upstairs window of No. 19, which originally looked the same as the remaining upstairs windows in this block, with small-paned vertically sliding sashes with moulded surrounds, was cut in half and used to replace a very small window which was originally above the front door of No. 19. This block has a red plain tiled roof with rear right and central red brick chimney stacks. The stack that originally served No. 19 was lost during the demolition.

The double front doors of No. 21 have fluted pilasters with capitals and bases, friezes and flat canopies. Notice the foot scraper outside No. 21. The front door of No.23 has a moulded surround with a simple open pediment on brackets. Note the Norwich Union fire plaque above the door. This told the fire brigade that the house was insured. They wouldn’t put out any fires there if it wasn’t!

The block consisting of Nos. 25-27 (odds) is now a house and pet shop. It was once an alehouse called Prince of Wales. This block also once housed a butchers. It dates from the 18thcentury and is timber framed and weatherboarded with a red plain tiled roof sporting a central red brick chimney stack. The windows are vertically sliding sashes and the door to the house has pilasters with capitals, bases and patera, a moulded and decorated frieze and a moulded flat canopy. This was probably an attempt to make the entrance look grand.

Until relatively recent times, everyone drank beer rather than water. This was because beer having been boiled during its production was far safer than water, which probably teemed with harmful bacteria. They didn’t know it was the boiling that made it safe, they just knew that water made you ill, beer didn’t.

Beer therefore became the drink of choice from the 13th century onwards, right when Rochford was founded around the market. Originally there were alehouses which were just houses that made ale from malt, yeast and water, then sold it in their front rooms. They either brewed it on the premises or sold ale that had been brewed elsewhere. Houses with cellars did better as ale kept longer in them.

After 1450, more alcoholic beer that was made using hops starter to appear. A drink called small beer also appeared at this time. This was very weak in terms of alcohol content and was the beverage commonly drunk instead of water, even by children, because it was safe. It could be sweet and porridge-like.

Alehouses provided basic food and may have offered cheap accommodation. They were an establishment for the lower classes. Next up the ranks of hostelries were taverns. These were like modern restaurants providing good quality food and drink. Inns were the top rank establishments and were the equivalent of modern hotels. By the 16th century the distinction between alehouses, taverns and inns had become recognised in law.

Like many market towns, Rochford had far more inns, taverns and alehouses than its population needed. This was because the population would swell massively on market days and during fairs and all these visitors would need somewhere to eat, drink and stay. The Golden Lion was most likely an alehouse which had been set up in a cottage.