three-sided courtyard with two projecting wings at the rear, one for accommodation, frequently with an open gallery approached by an external staircase, the other one providing stabling. Perhaps the earliest of these inns incorporating galleried accommodation is the George, Dorchester, Oxfordshire (135), which still retains its staircase. Other notable examples are the New Inn, Gloucester, built in 1445, the White Horse, Romsey, Hampshire, and the George, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, which still retains an open gallery overlooking the yard with late seventeenth-century turned balusters and panelled posts and outer staircase. Often, as at the Bell, Thetford, Norfolk, an inn founded in 1493, and the White Horse, Romsey, these open galleries have been enclosed.
As roads improved, following the first Turnpike Acts in 1663, there rose an urgent need to provide more and better accommodation for the traveller. Inns had to provide rooms not only for the passengers of the stage-coaches and mail-coaches but also for those of private post-chaises and for horse-riders. As horses could be used over only a limited distance, inns had to provide extensive stabling for the horses which had to be changed at each stage. Although many inns were constructed to cater for this new demand, many of the old timber – framed inns were adapted, refurbished and enlarged, often given a pretentious Georgian facade; examples include the Bear at Devizes, Wiltshire, the White Horse, Dorking, and the Royal George, Knuts – ford, Cheshire, which dates from the fourteenth century. The courtyard plan remained popular but the open galleries had by now been abandoned. Some of the larger inns had two courtyards, the second courtyard surrounded by kitchens and other service rooms and stables. Private houses continued to be converted to cater for the growing demands – as was the Llandoger Trow, Bristol (136).