MEM24704 - Hare and Hounds, Exton (Building)

The Tithe Map for Exton shows two large rectangular buildings arranged parallel to each other and running north to south at SS 9257 3363. The group are labelled 779, which the accompanying Apportionment describes as "House and Gardens", owned by John Ridler under Robert Guy Evered Esquire and occupied by himself. [1] By the time the 25 inch 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map was surveyed, the eastern range appears to have been demolished and rebuilt as a group of outbuildings on various alignments. The site is labelled "Inn". [2] 2018 MasterMap data shows that most of the outbuildings are still in place, together with the main building to the front. The site is labelled "Hare and Hounds". [3] A new family moved to the Hare and Hounds in 1957. It had been converted into a private house about thirty years before by Mrs Pearce. The house was thought to date to the 18th Century, although "some parts seemed older". The building was of brick and stone and roughcast and had a "broad beamed hall, a large sitting room, dining room (that contained an inglenook fireplace), a kitchen and two larders). Upstairs were four bedrooms, a WC and a bathroom. The windows had casements and behind the house was a cobbled yard with an upping stone and range of outbuildings. A flight of steps outside led to a long club room that used to house dinners and had a skittle alley below, which at one time could be accessed directly from the inn. An old brick floored wash house was at right angles to this building, which held a pump, a copper, an inglenook fireplace and a large bread oven. The site is listed as an inn in various directories since 1866, with the last landlord, Sidney Down, mentioned in 1923; in 1927 it is listed as Church House, apparently in use as a private house by this time. [4]