The frame was found to be largely complete, but suffering badly from subsidence and from carelessly inserted dormer windows, which had weakened its structure and caused the outer walls to lean nearly 18-inches out of true. To solve this, all the rafters had to be taken off and the frame braced back in position. When the roof covering was put back the rather haphazard mixture of plain tiles and pantiles was rationalised, so that now there are plain tiles on the medieval part of the building and pantiles on the later additions. The ridge tiles are copies of two surviving medieval ones.
The hall itself was returned it to its 15th-century condition, taking out the inserted floor and any later timbers, and removing a later brick chimney. A brick panel marks where the original frame had been cut away to make room for it. Any new timber that had to be used for repairs - oak was used throughout - was left unfinished, so that it would be quite clear what was old and what was new. Although the windows in the hall had been covered up long ago, the slots for the mullions of the large windows all survived and we were able to put them back as they originally were. The floor tiles (a mix of ‘pamments’ and bricks) in the hall are mostly old. The wood stove echoes the position of the later chimney, and stands close to the place identified in the 1970s restoration as the former position of the open hearth (although such open hall hearths were more typically found in a more central position and we now believe the hearth must always have been nearer the centre of the hall). In the partition between the hall and the low end some panels of original wattle and daub survived, and these were retained. Elsewhere panels of wood-wool were inserted, as the closest modern equivalent to the medieval material, and then plastered.
In the high and low ends a less rigorous policy of stripping out was followed. For example in the Solar on the first floor the later ceiling joists have been left in situ, to show how the building was altered. Later fireplaces have also been left and of course most of the doors, though old, are not medieval. Both ends have new staircases.
The later additions south and west of the low end were very soundly built, probably in the 17th and 18th centuries, with a charm and character of their own. They have been preserved as a separate cottage. Some other outbuildings were taken down, however, to create the courtyard at the back.
In a separate phase of work the adjoining 19th-century brick cottages were renovated and then, a few years later, we bought the land in front of the New Inn, which now, with the closing of the road that ran across it, serves as a village green.
Until 2013, we ran New Inn as three separate Landmark units. The open hall, then unheated, was left as a communal space for all to share, and we came to feel that this was a shame. So in 2013, the hall has been fully insulated and, combining the best of traditional and modern heating methods, we installed both a woodstove and underfloor heating, exploiting renewable energy via an air source heat pump. To maximise the hall’s use, two of the smaller units (formerly known as High End and Low End) have been combined to make today’s single Landmark for eight. New Inn’s tradition of hospitality is now set to continue into the 21st century.