History

Crondall's earliest mention is in the Domesday Book (1086) whilst the Plume of Feathers itself dates back to the sixteenth century. It is widely considered to be a fine example of the architecture of the Tudor period with oak beams and inglenook fireplaces.

In October 1645 Oliver Cromwell is reputed to have stayed at the Plume of Feathers during the parliamentary siege of Basing House, one of the great Royalist strongholds of the Civil War.

Basing House fell to Cromwell and the artillery of the New Model Army following a seige that began on on 8 October, with an artillery bombardment starting four days later. This then lead to a decisive assault on 14 October 1645.

The Plume of Feathers may well have another link with the Civil War as, over the years, there have been reports of sightings at the pub of what appears a young man dressed in clothing from the period.

The Plume of Feather's ghost, nicknamed "Olly", has been reported (usually early in the morning) passing through the pub's courtyard area, past the Bed & Breakfast accommodation, the kitchen and the well - before apparently walking up Church Street.

These sightings might be related to similar reports of a ghost of a parliamentary soldier with a horse in the graveyard of All Saints Church, which is known to have been an outpost for the Roundhead forces during the war.

The well at the rear of the pub was 'rediscoverd' in 2001 when a large slab of stone was moved from on top of what appeared to be a retaining wall. The well is over 30 feet deep and has subsequently been made safe with its wall rebuilt in a traditional style.

Made up of two separate buildings, the corner building is the highest quality mediaeval building in the village, a fine example of the mediaeval hall plan to be found in southern England in the 15th century. Robustly constructed of heartwood oak it was probably always an inn, or commercial building, devoid of any carved ornamentation that might have graced a private house of jettied construction.

Jettying the projection of the upper storey beyond the storey below, was a favoured device during the 15th and 16th Centuries in towns and on prominent corner sites. It had the advantage of balancing the forces to prevent deflection of the upper floor, so prevalent in Tudor construction. This was a distinct advantage in a bedchamber but was more expensive to construct. The Plume is jettied on two sides, the problem of turning the corner being solved by the use of a heavy, diagonal floor beam, the ‘dragon beam’, into which the floor joists are tenoned, a prominent feature of the bar.

Much of the original framing survives, dividing the building into four bays; the two inner bays forming a hall open to the roof, the two end bays with bedchambers above. The bay at the Borough end was a parlour with stairs up to the best bedchamber, known as the solar, above. At the south end the bay was divided into two rooms, the buttery and pantry. The building was entered through doors at opposite sides of the hall, the ‘cross passage’ area, the entire hall open to the roof and heated by a central, open hearth fire. A louvre in the roof enabled the smoke to escape, the open upper storey allowing space for the build-up of smoke. Mortices and stave holes in the beams show where the original partitions were.

The walls were all wattle and daubed, a little of which remains, and the roof thatched or tiled. The mullioned window openings were shuttered and unglazed, glass being prohibitively expensive.

The first alteration, in about 1550 or a little later, was the construction of a smoke bay, dividing the cross passage from the hall and re-siting the open hearth fire to an enclosed bay open to the roof. The rest of the hall was then floored over to create another bedchamber above. A new central beam supported the floor joists, which were cantilevered over the outer frame to create a continuous jetty along the Church Street frontage. The later joists are smaller than the original end bay joists and have separate carpenter’s mark numbers and a different form of tenon joint to the central beam.

By the early 17th Century, when bricks became affordable, a new brick fireplace and chimney replaced the smoke bay. Brick infill panels gradually replaced the wattle and daub over the 17th and 18th Centuries and glazed windows crudely inserted. The present fireplace shows 19th Century bricks and the opening incorporates the re-used smoke bay beam above.

The building on the Borough frontage is also early Tudor but a more humble structure matching the traditional village houses. The end bay retains the original roof structure but the walls were re-built in brick during the 17th Century, with an outshut extension on the rear side. A large brick chimney stack was built incorporating fireplace, smoke chamber and bread oven. The buildings were linked in the later 16th Century when the hall bay was taken down and a new section built, larger and a full two storeys in height, with a parlour added to the hall and bedchambers above.

The buildings were linked in the later 16th Century when the hall was taken down and a new section built, larger and full two storeys in height, with a parlour added to the hall and bedchambers above.

The building has change little structurally since the 18th Century, reflecting the decline of the village in the 19th Century when neighbouring towns of Fleet and Aldershot developed and the Plume was reduced to the status of a village beer house. In the 20th Century a kitchen extension was built on the south end in the 1930s, and the toilets were rebuilt in 1959. The inn has been spared brewers ‘improvements’ and fashionable modernisation remaining very much a village inn, having seen off competition from all but two of ten other public houses of the 19th and 20th Centuries.

The trade of "viteller” is first mentioned in Crondall in 1639. Recorded in the Probate inventories, researched by Joan Harries, is one of Benjamin Heather listing the contents of “hall, two parlours, kitchen, bakehouse, brewhouse, cellar and four chambers above". The inventories do not identify the houses but there can be little doubt that the Plume fits this description. Benjamin did not live long enough to entertain Oliver Cromwell, reputed to have stayed over-night on 8th October 1645 on his way to reduce Basing House.