The Old King's Head, Kirton in Holland, near

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

, England is a former public house. The earlier part of it was built at the end of the sixteenth century and was given major alterations in 1661 in Artisan Mannerist Style. It is red brick in

English Bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called '' courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by si ...

with recent tiles over a thatched roof. It became a domestic residence in the 1960s and in 2016 it was purchased by Heritage Lincolnshire for restoration.

Architecture

The term Artisan Mannerist Architecture was first used by

Sir John Summerson Sir John Newenham Summerson (25 November 1904 – 10 November 1992) was one of the leading British architectural historians of the 20th century. Early life John Summerson was born at Barnstead, Coniscliffe Road, Darlington. His grandfather wo ...

in 1953 to describe the building style that developed after the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

in Britain when artisan craftsmen such as masons and bricklayers took on the role of architects. The style was largely derived from Dutch architecture. Sir John's study was largely restricted to larger stone buildings, but John Harris who worked with Sir Nicholas Pevsner on the Lincolnshire volume of

Buildings of England The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were published b ...

adopted the terminology ''Fen Artisan Style'' and described the Old Kings Head as an example of Fenland Artisan Mannerism. Harris went on to describe other examples of similar buildings. These include the nearby Blossom's Hall also in Kirton, the Elizabethan House and The Hall at

Coningsby Coningsby is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district in Lincolnshire, England, it is situated on the A153 road, adjoining Tattershall on its western side, 13 miles (22 km) north west of Boston and 8 miles (13 km) so ...

, the Porch House

Sibsey Sibsey is a village, civil parish and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated at the junction of the A16 road (England), A16 and B1184 roads, nor ...

the Church House at

and the Bulls Neck and adjacent farm near Holbeach. The style is probably best exemplified by the manor house at Aslackby, near Bourne. Here the house has raised brickwork decoration and elaborate string courses, while the square chimney stacks are angled in a line in a similar fashion to those on the Old Kings Head. The style contrasts with the Artisan brick mannerism of North Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire which has been studied by Neave and is often associated with the work of Hull architect William Catlyn. Neave derives this architectural style from the brick architecture of the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

.Neave (1996), pp18-25 This origin is also likely to be true for Fenland Artisan Mannerism where houses often also have

Dutch gables A Dutch gable or Flemish gable is a gable whose sides have a shape made up of one or more curves and has a pediment at the top. The gable may be an entirely decorative projection above a flat section of roof line, or may be the termination of a ...

Old King's Head Gallery

File:Kirton-in-Holland - geograph.org.uk - 732913.jpg, Old King's Head File:Kirton-in-Holland - geograph.org.uk - 732920.jpg, Old King's Head from King's street. File:The Old King’s Head, Kirton, Lincolnshire 01.jpg, The Old King's Head. Mannerist brick decoration over earlier doorway File:The Old King’s Head, Kirton, Lincolnshire 04.jpg, The Old King's Head. Late 16th century moulded beam. File:The Old King’s Head, Kirton, Lincolnshire 05.jpg, Advertisement for Stone's Ginger wine, c.1900 File:The Old King’s Head, Kirton, Lincolnshire 06.jpg, The Old King's Head. 17th century chimney stacks. File:The Old King’s Head, Kirton, Lincolnshire 07.jpg, Rear of the Old King's Head. shows brick rustication on corner.

Literature

* Antram N (revised), Pevsner N & Harris J, (1989), ''The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire'', Yale University Press. pp. 979 * Barley M (1990) ''The Buildings of the Countryside 1500–1750,'' Vol 5, of Chapters from the Agrarian History of England and Wales (ed. Thirsk J.) Cambridge University Press, pp 1–173. * Neave D. (1996) Artisan Mannerism in North Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire: The work of William Catlyn (1628-1709) of Hull in Sturman C (ed) Lincolnshire Peoples and Places: Essays in Memory of Terence R. Leach (1937-1994), pp. 18–25. * Summerson Sir J 1953, Architecture in Britain 1530–1830, 97-105

References

External links

{{Commons category, The Old King’s Head, Kirton, Lincolnshire * British Listed Building

* Heritage Lincolnshir

Grade II listed pubs in Lincolnshire Kirton, Lincolnshire