TQ 53 37 SPELDHURST BIRD-IN-HAND STREET, OLD GROOMBRIDGE 16/453 No 6 20.10.54 GV II* House, once a public house. Probably C18, maybe earlier origins, minor C19 and C20 modernistion. Timber-framed. The ground floor front is underbuilt with Flemish bond red brick and some original footings of coursed sandstone shows in places. Timber frame above is hung with peg-tile. Brick stack (maybe on a stone base) and brick chimneyshaft. Peg-tile roof. Plan: 3-room plan house facing north east. Direct entry into main room to right (north west) which has an end stack shared with the adjoining house, No 7 (q.v.). 2 small unheated rooms to left. It seems that the stack has always been shared with No 7 and it may be that No 6 and 7 were originally parts of the same house. House is 2 storeys with a cellar and secondary lean-to outshots to rear. Exterior: Irregular 3-window front of various C19 and C20 casements, the latest with glazing bars the others with either diamond or rectangular panes of leaded glass. Front doorway is roughly central and contains a C19 plank door under a shallow hood on shaped timber brackets. Main roof is parallel to the street running between the adjoining buildings. At ground floor level the brickwork in front of the stack is different from the rest. Also the stone footings under the brick run continuously from those of No 7 (q.v.) to right stopping with a straight join at the front of the stack. Interior: Little carpentry is exposed and the fireplaces have C20 grates. Although the jowled heads of the wall posts show and the undersides of the tie beams the roofspace itself is inaccessible. It is 3 bays. No 6, it is said, was formerly the Bird-in-Hand public house which gave its name to the street. It is also one of the superlative group of listed buildings associated with Groombridge Place (q.v.) which make up Old Groombridge village. Listing NGR: TQ5297037730