Charles Dickens described it as an enormous, labyrinthine tavern that was “known far and wide” and famous for its stone statue of an animal “distantly resembling an insane cart-horse”.
He was a regular guest at the Great White Horse Hotel in Ipswich, Suffolk, and was so captivated by the place that it helped inspire him to write his first novel, The Pickwick Papers.
Other notable guests have included George II, Admiral Horatio Nelson and the Beatles, but the hotel is in a sorry state and is one of 159 places in England added this year to the nation’s Heritage at Risk Register.
Historic England said other buildings and sites added to the 2023 register included the house where the Gunpowder Plot unravelled.
On the plus side, 203 sites have been taken off the register, including Holmfirth Conservation Area, best known as the setting for the Last of the Summer Wine TV series.
Rebecca Barrett, Historic England’s national lead on heritage at risk, said the register, now 25 years old, was an important snapshot of the health of the country’s historic environment.
“We are delighted that 203 sites have been rescued and removed from the register,” she said. “It’s thanks to the determination, perseverance and the imagination of so many people, whether that’s volunteers or community groups, local authorities or developers. We’re grateful to everyone who has played their part in the success stories this year.”
Barrett said the wealth of stories told by the places on the register was remarkable.
The Great White Horse Hotel, for example, was a place so famous in its time that a replica of it represented Britain at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. “It is a really handsome-looking building,” said Barrett.
Originally a 16th/17th-century timber framed building, it was re-fronted using Suffolk white bricks in the early 19th century. A young Dickens stayed there on several occasions reporting on political meetings. He wrote in The Pickwick Papers that it was famous in the neighbourhood “in the same degree as a prize ox, or a county-paper-chronicled turnip, or unwieldy pig”.
It was made more conspicuous by “a stone statue of some rampacious animal with flowing mane and tail, distinctly resembling an insane cart-horse.”.
The horse statue was moved at some point and replaced by a similar statue, which remains today.
The hotel, Historic England said, had “active dry rot in the second floor ‘Dickens room’, loose plaster detailing in the ballroom, detaching plaster ceiling and deteriorating windows and exterior joinery. The gutters and drainpipes are also in poor condition.”
It said it was discussing the building’s problems with the local authority, the tenant and the landlord.
Other places going on the register include:
• St Mary’s church, in Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk, which was painted by John Constable and is undergoing major repairs.
• Holbeche House in Dudley, the last refuge of conspirators involved in the Gunpowder Plot after they fled London.
• Oldway Mansion in Paignton, Devon, which was already ostentatious when it was built for the Victorian sewing machine magnate Isaac Singer in 1873. Its remodelling between 1904-07 was inspired by the Palace of Versailles.
Coming off the register are places including:
• Bourn Mill in Cambridgeshire, one of the oldest windmills in England.
• Tolpuddle Old Chapel in Dorset, used as a place of worship by four of the six men who became the Tolpuddle martyrs, who were sentenced to transportation to Australia in 1834 for swearing a secret oath as members of The Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers.
• A Victorian electricity substation in Wimbledon, which, in the eyes of some, can be seen as an eccentric work of art.
In total, there are 4,871 entries on the 2023 register, 48 fewer than in 2022.
Barrett said about three-quarters of entries on the original 1998 register had been removed.
“The vast majority of these sites are looked after by individuals and organisations who care really deeply about the history and the stories of these places … but they just need a bit of extra support. That’s what the register can do – help focus resources and investment in the places that needs it most.”
