KNOWLE HERITAGE WALK ONE
Knowle High Street
4 – West Side to Red Lion and Finish
ROUTE:
Turn back and use the pedestrian crossing after Hampton Road to walk back up the High Street on the opposite sideuntil you reach the Red Lion.
PLACES OF INTEREST:
15 The Spinney – This attractive bank at the roadside is a garden remnant of Knowle Lodge, a former parsonage which stood where the Surgery is now on Lodge Road.
16 No 1608 High Street – The Bilash occupies a Grade II listed, timber framed, former 17th/18th century cottage.
17 Nos 1622-1628 High Street – Accommodating Heavenly Bodies, Hunters and Bella Venezia is a further Grade II listed, timber framed 17th/18th century premises, noteable for curved bay windows and casemented gables. The adjacent art school sits in a younger Grade II building, dating from 1886.
18 Nos 1632-1634 High Street – On the corner of St John’s Close sits another early timber framed building, this time with the later addition of a Georgian façade. In 1889 it became one of the first 15 branches of the Midland Bank and was much extended to the rear. Its banking heritage lives on today in the name of the pub around the corner to the rear of the premises – The Vaults.
19 No 1660 High Street – The former NatWest bank replaced the historic White Swan Inn which served the village from the 15th century until its demolition in 1939. The swan, barley, grapes, tankard and wine glass motifs in the stonework recall the earlier building.
20 No 1666 High Street – Eric Lyons shop has been a butchers’ shop since the 19th century. Members of the Lyons family have been local butchers since 1903.
21 The Red Lion – An original fireplace sits in the bar of this early 17th century timbered pub. John Wesley, founder of Methodism, once preached in its yard.