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Dawkins House
There is some evidence that Dawkins House, the large limestone building in the Spalding Road, was in existence before the 17th century. Until fifty years ago, this was a public house known as the New Inn and the earliest date associated with the property is 1550 when the man thought to have built it, Thomas Dawkins, a tanner, lived in nearby Eastgate, and it would therefore predate the Red Hall by half a century. Little is known of the building except for a few deeds dating from the 19th century and a stone plaque that bears the inscription "Thomas Dawkins Anno Dom. 1666" that can be found on an extension built in that year when it was being used as a public house and so the additional space was probably required as a bottle store for cooling ale and as a place to accommodate horses and carts belonging to weary travellers. The property is now a Grade II listed building and is known as Dawkins House although extensive modernisation in 1962 has robbed it of it original thatched roof that has been replaced with Collyweston slate, the flagstone floors and an Elizabethan solid oak spiral staircase similar to that in the Red Hall.
See also Inns and other hostelries
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