TR 1643-1743 ELHAM HIGH STREET (West Side) 9/35 The Abbots Fireside 27.8.52 Hotel and Restaurant GV II* Inn, formerly cottages, now hotel and restaurant. Early C17, with mid-to- late C18 addition to right. Ground floor rendered, first floor timber- framed with plaster infilling. Left gable end C17 red and grey brick in English bond. Plain tile roof. Lobby-entry plan of 5 timber-framed bays including short stack bay. Sixth bay added to right end in later C18. Two storeys, on rendered plinth. Continuous jetty with grotesque brackets and enriched bressumer. Eaves also jettied to front, with plain bressumer on 13 (probably originally 14) grotesque brackets; one to each end, pair flanking stack, pair flanking each mullioned and transomed window and pair flanking frieze windows of right-central bay. Brickwork of left gable end corbelled out at each jetty. First floor close-studded, with diamond of ornamental panelling under left and central first-floor windows. Left gable end has moulded brick plinth, moulded string course between storeys, at eaves level, and to gable apex. Roof gabled to left, hipped to right with gablet. Red brick ridge stack in second timber-framed bay from left. Irregular fenest- ration of 5 leaded windows; one ten-light ovolo-moulded mullioned-and- transomed window with two-light ovolo-moulded mullion frieze window to left and similar three-light frieze window to right. Similar mullioned-and- transomed window with two-light frieze windows to left-cnetral bay and another to right-central bay. Single casement in a rendered gap under stack. Two- light casement with two-light ovolo-moulded frieze windows to right end bay. Mortices suggest all four principal windows were formerly oriels. Four canted bays with rendered bases to ground floor; one to left end with six-light mullioned and transomed window, another similar four-light window to left- central bay with blocked four-light frieze window to right of it, and two towards right with twelve-pane sashes and moulded wooden cornices. Two- light ovolo-moulded mullion window to left of front door and small eight-pane sash to right. Studded doors of fifteen panels in moulded rectangular architrave up two steps under stack. Similar seven-panel door to right end. Later red brick rear lean-to. Mid-to-late C18 single-bay addition to right, rendered, on rendered plinth, with red and grey brick right gable end. Plain tile roof. 2 storeys and cellar. Continuous jetty and Ionic-modillioned eaves cornice in line with main range, but roof with lower ridge, hipped to right. Two truncated projecting brick stacks to right gable end. Single twelve-pane first-floor sash, and two small multipane canted bay windows to ground floor. Central ribbed door up four steps, with semi-circular fanlight with radiating glazing bars. Interior: only partly inspected. Exposed framing. Two central bays form one room, with moulded cross beam resting to rear on corbelled wooden bracket dated 1614. Two pairs of ovolo-moulded axial beams form six- RH panel ceiling. Moulded rendered fireplace with moulded attenuated four-centred- arched bressumer carved with dragons or serpents and central cherub's head. Enriched wooden overmantel with moulded, corbelled and finely-dentilled cornice and central panel with shield inscribed "richard benet the Smithies arms 1624". Smaller moulded four-centred-arched fireplace to left end room, bressumer carved with lions and angels and central cherub's head, and with enriched cornice. Chamfered axial and cross beams to left end room, which is entered from lobby through moulded rectangular doorway. Chamfered axial beam to right end room and another to right addition. Right end room has later rear fireplace. Wall painting with text and floral border to rear wall of left-central bay on first floor, and probably also elsewhere.Ovolo-moulded first-floor doorway and C18 panelled doors. Known in C19 and early C20 as Keeler's Mansion (when three cottages). Listing NGR: TR1763743931