82 Bensham Road, The Borough Arms Public House

2 storey public house. Large coursed stone with lintels, sills and string course to ground floor. Shallow pitched slate roof with ridge tiles, and 5 rebuilt chimneys – 3 to ridge (1 stone, 1 truncated) and 2 to rear in brick. Water tables only on rear. Modern public house front to the centre of the ground floor, with a pair of late windows separated by a stone mullion to each side – the eastern end being single-pane sashes. First floor windows are 3 pairs of recent timber sashes separated by a timber mullion and 1 single sash. Built in 3 phases: eastern portion, smaller western end (in greyer, less golden sandstone) and rear offshoot – all present by 1840. Has cellars beneath which may be older than the standing buildings. The building is one of the oldest survivals in the Windmill Hills area and has been in continuous use as a public house with no name change since at least 1833. It harmonises with the approximately contemporaneous building group further along the street (of which the Listed no. 72 Bensham Road forms a part), which are similarly built in local sandstone, also complementing the later red brick Romulus Terrace. In 1833 it was owned by James Gallon. Prior to this it may have been used as a corn mill with a gin-gang in the cellars. Not present on 1795 map (TWAS DT.BEL/2/118). LOCAL LIST