History:

• In 1571, the Haycock was known as The Swan Inn.
• In 1632 the inn was rebuilt.
• In 1706, the 1st recorded innkeeper was William Hodgson.
• In 1790, the coaches entered the inn driving through what is today the hotel's main entrance.
• In 1791, George Norton ran the Inn and died on 17 October 1803.
• In 1803, George Norton's widow, his cousin, Ann Norton continued the running.
• In 1804, Jeremiah Mallatratt took the Haycock over.
• In 1808 Mallatratt lost the Haycock through a game of cards with Anthony Percival of Greetham.
• On November 25 1826, Anthony Percival died and his widow succeeded, who then handed over the business to her son Thomas. Thomas Percival ran the White's Club in conjunction with the Haycock and the "Young Percival" of coaching episodes.
• On 2nd September 1832, Princess Alexandrina Victoria, later to be crowned Queen Victoria stayed at the Haycock.
• In 1841, Thomas Percival died and his widow, Elizabeth took over.
• In 1871, The Haycock owned its own 625-acre farm and employed 10 labourers.
• In 1887, the Inn was converted into a private house.
• In 1893, Elizabeth Percival relinquished her licence and died 5 years later on 8th January 1898.
• In 1899, Major-General Charles Compton William Cavendish, 3rd Baron Chesham took over the Haycock as a hunting lodge and left 31 March 1904.
• During 1899 to 1911, the next owner was Lionel Digby Esq., racehorse owner, shortly followed by a Captain Munday and a Captain White. It next became the temporary home of L.Woodforde Esq. whilst his property Hill House, Yarwell, was being built.
• In 1911, Stanley Brotherhood (son of Peter Brotherhood, founder of the Peterborough firm) lived there whilst Thornhaugh Hall was being built. He moved into the Hall in 1913.
• In 1914, June, Sir Bache Cunard, grandson of Sir Samuel Cunard, founder of the Cunard steam-ships took residence.
• In 1915 Sir Bache opened his own ordnance factory in the old Cock Fighting loft above the stables to manufacture munitions components.
• In 1916 Sir Bache, at the peak of productivity, he employed some half-dozen women and could turn out up to 500 shell bases a day. Sea mine and depth charge components, as well as detonators, were also manufactured.
• From 1926 to 1928, H. R Seabrooke resided in part of the Haycock while supervising the building of a bridge over the River Nene.
• In 1928, Charles Allday, a diary farmer at Fotheringhay reopened the Haycock as a hotel with his sister, Evelyn Allday, as a host.
• In 1928, had its own air-strip alongside the river where the Cricket Ground now lies. The air-strip ceased functioning when a new bridge was built across the River Nene and opened in 1929.
• In 1930, Philip Thompson took over.
• In 1930's, the 'sprung' floor of the Opera House, Convent Garden, was purchased during refurbishments and expertly laid in the (former) Haycock Ballroom. Couples came from miles around to enjoy the experience of dancing on its immaculate, 'springy' surface.
• In 1935, Ian Drayton became proprietor after Philip Thompson became ill. Mrs Drayton applied for temporary licence when her husband was called up for military service.
• In 1961 the hotel was taken over by George Hotels of Stamford Ltd.
• In 1971 the hotel was taken over by Poste Hotels Ltd with Mr Bevil Thynne as manager.
• In 1995, the hotel was purchased by Arcadian Hotels.
• In 1999 it was sold to Hand Picked Hotels and was managed by the Macdonald Hotel Group.
• In 2003, the Haycock was purchased by its present owners, Mr and Mrs Philips Carter, who have extensively renovated and restored the building to reflect the 'boutique' hotel genre.

Architecture:

The Haycock Hotel originally a posting house, was converted into a private residence in the mid 19th Century and reconverted back into a hotel in recent years. It had additions added in late 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. It is situated on the east side of the Great North Road, immediately South of Wansford Bridge.

The 2 storey building is built out of coursed limestone rubble, freestone with ashlar dressings and a Collyweston stone slated roof. It has cellars, attics, and lower ranges and outshuts. The main block of the building fronts the road and was originally designed under the H-shaped plan with gabled cross wings from north to south and with later 17th century eastern ranges projecting from cross wings partly enclosing a courtyard to the rear. The front to the main building was remodelled at the same time.

In the 18th century there was an open galleried addition to the east side of the central block of the main range later in filled as well as a kitchen in the South West corner and other additions to the main building on the west side of the courtyard . Late 19th century alterations include blocking the main archway and adding a porch to the west.

Within the courtyard there was a Tap Room for food, drink, and warmth. Staircases lead to the gallery, which ran along the 1st floor and gained access to the bedrooms. This gallery was enclosed towards the mid-1800s and what remains of those passageways still connect some of the bedrooms. The horses were tethered on rings in the Cooling Arch and these rings still exist on the walls. The courtyard has been significantly been decreased in size and a state of the art Business Centre now resides there.

The Cock Fighting Loft has been incorporated into the main hotel and the stone steps that led to the loft can still be seen in the courtyard on either side of the Cooling Arch. Within the steps there are kennels where a fox would have been tethered. During the First World War, the loft became an independent munitions factory.

The old in-house brewery is now a storeroom.

The building was generally repaired when it was converted into a private house, the windows to the main block were remodelled to receive sashes and other alterations were made to the interior. The central porch to the main front is a 19th century addition and covers the remains of a former archway.

The symmetrical west elevation is of squared rubble with plinths and dressed stone quoins. The projecting wings, 2 bays and main range of 5 bays are gabled and have flat copings with moulded edges and console brackets as kneelers. At the 1st floor level, there is a moulded string-course which rises to a higher level over the head of the former central archway and also against the wings. At the base of the gables is a 2nd moulded string which is carried along the return walls of the wings and along the central block below a coved plastered eaves-cornice.

In the wall behind the porch are the ashlar-dressing of the former central-archway and above it is a square headed 17th century window with a moulded architrave and rustications and was surmounted by an entablature and pediment. The remaining windows have plain square-headed openings and the windows in both the gables, now blocked, have moulded labels.

In the roof of the main block there are five segmental 17th century headed dormer-windows and one at each end of the return roof of the wings. To the north of the window above the entrance-porch are 2 moulded corbels or brackets which held the former sign-board of the Inn. The 2 chimney-stacks on the main block are of old design but rebuilt. The north front of the main block has a moulded string at the level of the 1st floor, with ranges of windows on both the ground and 1st floors and 4 dormers in the roof, all similar to those on the main front.

The south front of the main block is similar to the north elevation.

The east front towards the courtyard is 18th century except for the exposed portions of the gabled ends of the cross-wings of the main block. On the original main wall and the return walls of the South wing are remains of the plinth and the moulded string at the first-floor level but these are now inside the building. On the 1st floor the inner walls of the wings retain original early 17th century windows with moulded mullions and labels.

The north range either side of the courtyard is of 17th century and has on the north front 2 original windows, one on each floor, which now are blocked. On the 1st floor, the front towards the courtyard retains portions of a moulded string-course. In the western half are 2 original doorways with segmental heads and further east are 2 others. At the west end is 1 old window on the ground floor, which has been altered to a doorway. The east half of the wing has been widened to the north at a later stage.

The south range, on the southern front at ground floor level has 2 original windows, 1 of 3 lights and the other of 2, each with moulded jambs, mullions and square heads with moulded strings as labels. On the 1st floor there is an original 3 light window, now blocked.

The front to the courtyard is partly covered by the later kitchen, the east wall of which juts onto an original doorway. The east jamb and architrave are exposed and above is a moulded string and pediment, the former being continued eastwards over an altered 2 light window. The upper floor has 2 early 17th century windows have been both altered. The east range of the courtyard has in the west front 2 doorways with flat 4 centred heads.

The original plan of the interior has been altered and few old features remain. Over the middle of the main block in the attic remains an original stone fireplace with a flat 4 centred head. In the back of each of the cross-wings to the main building are 2 very fine original closed string oak staircases. They have been partly re-built, painted and have heavy turned balusters and mouldings have been fixed to the strings. The newels to the north stairs have later deal cappings above, which are oak ball-heads; the newels to the south stair have shaped terminals. In the cellars are remains of several former external windows now blocked and below the north wing of the main house is an original fireplace with a 4 centred head.

Parts of the former stables are thought to be older than the main inn and possibly date from the early 16th century.

The Haycock Hotel was listed as a Grade II building on 25th September 1951.

Social History :

• Travellers would congregate at staging posts such as the Haycock for news of the Great North Road (road between London and Scotland), weather ahead, change horses or band together in groups as insurance against or banditry along the road.
• The earliest record goes back to 1571 of the Swan when: "At Wansford 3 arches of the bridge were washed away and so rapid and violent was the rising of the Nene that at the Swan Inn, 3 storeys high, the water flowed into the bedrooms. Walls of the stables were broken down and horses tied to the manager were drowned."
• There is a dated stone, 1632, that long ago was found in the Haycock gardens and is now displayed within the hotel.
• In 1698 Celia Fiennes records visiting the Swan, later published in 1888 as "Through England on a Side Saddle in the time of William and Mary".
• In 1700, an Estate Map, the Haycock meadow by the Old Bridge is shown as Swan Close.
• On 25 November 1706, the parish registers recorded the burial of William Hodgson the tapster (innkeeper) of the Swan.
• In 1930's, there was an old Cleveland petrol pump on the right at Collier's smithy and engineering workshop. In earlier years petrol was sold in 2-gallon cans from the end-corner of the adjacent bridge parapet. It was the 1 of the 2 petrol stops between London and York.
• The running fox weathervane has been replaced numerous times in the past due to the local yeoman emptying their charge guns after a day of shooting.
• 'Barnaby', who features on the famous inn sign, first was mentioned in the Natural History of Northampton by the Revd.John Morton and published in 1712. Published in 1638, the poem 'Barnabae Itinerarium', it relates how Barnaby now depicted on the inn sign, arrived at Wansford exhausted and sought accommodation. Upon seeing a cottage door inscribed 'Lord have mercy on me', he realised that plague was cutting one of its cyclic swathes through Wansford and beat a hasty retreat to the river bank where he soon fell asleep upon a haycock (bale of hay).
• Drunken Barnaby is also depicted as a sculptured fir tree that stands above the river across the road from the Haycock.
• It is claimed Mary Queen of Scots was lodged at The Haycock on her way to her imprisonment and later execution at nearby Fotheringhay Castle.
• Permanent accommodation was booked at the Haycock by the old Embassy Theatre in Peterborough for the famous artists who appeared there; Laurel and Hardy, Gracie Fields, George Formby, Elsie and Doris Waters.