Cross Keys Inn, Whitechapel, Lancashire- Building Investigation

John Holden submitted a planning application for the conversion of Cross Keys Inn, Church Lane, Whitechapel, Lancashire (SD 5920 3440), into a residential building. As part of the planning procedure, Lancashire County Archaeological Service, (LCAS) recommended a building investigation of English Heritage (2006) Level II standard. Following these recommendations, Mr Holden commissioned Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) to carry out the building investigation, which was duly undertaken in April 2009.
The cartographic sources provided a sequence of building from the mid-nineteenth century through to the early decades of the twentieth century. The building investigation revealed the Cross Keys Inn to be a complex, multi-phase structure. It originated, probably in the mid-eighteenth century, as a double-pile farmhouse, of relatively large size and status for the locality, with an attached threshing barn. In the mid-nineteenth century, it was known as Lower Oakenhead, apparently becoming a coaching house shortly afterwards, although still functioning as a working farm. The building was extended on the rear side in the early-twentieth century, by which time the farm was becoming predominantly a diary farm. A final phase of expansion occurred in the mid-twentieth century, when a single-storey extension was added to the northern side of the inn, providing cloakrooms and a dining/function room. The farm continued to expand through this period, with the addition of further, dairy-related structures.
There are no recommendations for further archaeological investigation of the property.