York Historic Environment Record

Formerly known as: Windmill Inn BLOSSON STREET. Inn. Late C17, mid C18 and early C19, with alterations in the late C18, early and mid C19, and additions c1890. Remodelled 1994. Brick, partly rendered, with some timber-framed internal partitions. Roofs pantiled and slated.

PLAN: the earliest block, at the north-east on the corner of Blossom Street and Queen Street, has 2 parallel roofs with gables facing Blossom Street. To the south, also facing Blossom Street, is an addition probably built shortly after 1735. No.16 adjoins to the south and is of c1820, with exposed brickwork and a slate roof. To the rear is a stable range of similar date. A parallel range of c1890 borders Queen Street and encloses the opposite side of the rear yard.

EXTERIOR: the north-eastern block has two 2-storey canted bay windows facing Blossom Street. They have plain tiled roofs and sashes which are divided horizontally by glazing bars. Above the left-hand one there is a small sashed window within the gable. The gables have finials and scalloped bargeboards. Between the bay windows on the ground floor there is a doorcase with panelled pilasters.

The mid C18 addition to the south is of 2 storeys. On the ground floor it has a bowed window with 3 sashes and on the 1st floor it has 2 sashed windows. No.16 is of mottled brick, 3 storeys and 2 bays. On the 1st floor there are bowed glazing bar sash windows with panelled friezes. On the 2nd floor there are glazing bar sashes. At the left on the ground floor there is a late C19 timber shopfront with 3 pilasters, and with brackets to each side of the fascia. The partly-glazed door is C20. At the right there is a carriage entrance with elliptical arch and double timber doors. The modillioned timber cornice gutter has a lead hopper and downpipe at the right. Chimneys on gables of No.16 (the 2 to the right in front of and behind the ridge), towards the rear of the left-hand ridge of the NE block, and on the right-hand return wall to Queen Street.

INTERIOR: not inspected. (RCHME: City of York: South-west of the Ouse: HMSO: 1972-: 62).
Listing NGR: SE5970451430

Derived from English Heritage LB download dated: 22/08/2005

Windmill Hotel, Nos. 14, 16, consists of a large U-shaped complex of four or five separate builds, from the late 17th to the late 19th centuries. The earlier works have been considerably altered and considerable internal rebuilding and refitting was carried out in 1965. In the early 19th century the Windmill Inn was 'a noted house' (YAYAS coll. in York City Library, letter M. Johnson to W. A. Evelyn, 6 Nov. 1913).

Stage 1, the block at the N.E. corner, with two adjacent gables to Blossom Street and steep-pitched roofs running back, is of the late 17th century and consists of brick outer walls with timber-framed internal partitions. It probably represents an early stage of rebuilding after the damage caused in the Civil War. The bay windows to the front, though largely renewed, were in existence by c. 1785; the timber barge-boards to the gables are modern.

Surviving internal features include chamfered beams, running N.–S., and rafters of the S. gabled roof, halved and pegged together at the apex. There are two large internal chimney-breasts, but all the fireplaces are of the late 19th or 20th century. The staircase is of mid to late 18th-century date with turned balusters to the bottom flight. It was probably only the structure constituted by these two parallel ranges that formed the 'two messuages cottages or tenements called the Windmill Inn', described in a deed of 1735, by which the children of the late Henry Lee conveyed the premises to the occupier, George Benson, innholder (YCA, E.93, f. 86). Henry Lee (1665–1727) belonged to the fifth generation of a family of millers who, from 1621 to 1690, had been lessees of a windmill belonging to the City near the top of The Mount (YCA, 1, ff. 102, 103), so that the inn must have taken its name from the mill worked by the family.

Stage 2, immediately to S., with a frontage to Blossom Street of about 21 ft., was probably originally a separate building, perhaps erected soon after the purchase of 1735. The roof, which is modern, has two ridges with a valley between, parallel to Blossom Street; the narrower span, to W., possibly represents a later addition, but no internal brick wall is thicker than 4½ in. A segmental bow window was put into the front elevation in the early 19th century.

Stage 3, a square three-storey block (No. 16) adjoining and S. of Stage 2, includes a carriageway to the hotel yard. It retains most of its original fittings. That it was built as an addition to the hotel is proved by the position of the staircase, accessible only from within Stage 2. It has a closed string, square balusters and turned newels. A long stable range behind, together with this block and carriageway, are shown on Baine's map of 1822, when they had probably just been completed, since No. 16 was first assessed to rates in 1823 (Borthwick Inst., Rate Books of Holy Trinity, Micklegate).

Stage 4, a long range running W. of Stage 1, is of c. 1890 but replaces an older range (OS 1852). There were intermediate stages of internal alteration, one of the mid 18th century including the main staircase and dado panelling in two ground-floor rooms; several doors are of c. 1840.

An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in City of York, Volume 3, South west. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1972. Monument 43.

NMR Information
613515 Architectural Survey Investigation by RCHME/EH Architectural Survey

BF060375 WINDMILL HOTEL, YORK File of material relating to a site or building. This material has not yet been fully catalogued.

RCHME, 1972, RCHME City of York Volume III South-west of the Ouse (Monograph). SYO64.

NMR, 2019, NMR data (Digital archive). SYO2214.