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Monument Types

• COACHING INN (Late Post-medieval to Modern - 1701 AD? to 2050 AD)

Summary

Stone coaching inn with two ranges gable end onto the main road, joined by a three bay central section. Tudor styling with hoodmoulds and mullion windows. Originally the Winchelsea Arms, known as the Ram Jam Inn from c.1800. Said to have been frequented by Dick Turpin. Much rebuilt in the 1920s in a Tudor Revival style.

Additional Information

A consultation report for listing the building was received in June 2019:
HISTORY:
The Ram Jam Inn is situated on the Great North Road (the A1) which was used as a stage coach and mail route between London and Edinburgh from the early C17. The improvement in road communications in the C18 stimulated the establishment of large coaching inns which offered eating and sleeping rooms, of varying status, with extensive stabling and grooms’ quarters. The Ram Jam originated as a coaching inn to serve the traffic along this part of the Great North Road. Its first known name was the Winchelsea Arms after the Earls of Winchelsea who were prominent land owners in the area. By the early C19 century the name had changed to the Ram Jam Inn. The origin of this unusual name is not known although there are numerous stories to explain it. The most well-known, although unsubstantiated, is associated with the famous C18 highwayman Dick Turpin who is supposed to have duped the landlady into ‘ramming’ and ‘jamming’ her thumbs into a barrel whilst he went to fetch a spline and bung but in actual fact left without paying his bill. The name was later used by the American singer Geno Washington for his Ram Jam Band. The inn had been a regular stopping place for him after playing gigs in London on his way back to East Anglia where he was stationed with the US Air Force. The famous Ram Jam Club in Brixton also owes its name to the inn.
The building is depicted on the first edition Ordnance Survey (OS) map of 1885 with a rectangular plan aligned north-south, and another long range is situated just behind to the south-west. The second edition map of 1904 shows that a small extension had been built onto the south end of the inn, whilst the long range has disappeared. Photographic evidence from around 1900 shows the inn as a five-bay Georgian building under a pitched roof with chimney stacks at both ends and through the central part of the ridge. There are doors in the second and fourth bays, and what appear to be multi-pane sash windows. The inn has small single-storey extensions on the north and south ends. In one photograph, a large garage with a gabled front is situated to the south of the inn with petrol pumps in front. This has since been demolished. A postcard of a water-colour painting produced c1920 shows that the frontage of the Ram Jam has been transformed with the addition of two large gabled bays at both ends and stone mullioned windows. The HER record suggests the medieval sundial that was unearthed in 1926 and built into the modified inn is an indication that the major extension probably took place around this time. Additional extensions were added to the rear of the inn in the 1970s and 1990s, more than doubling the size of the building’s footprint. The Ram Jam Inn has been vacant since 2013.
DETAILS:
Former coaching inn probably dating to the C18 with C20 extensions.
MATERIALS: limestone rubble roughly squared and coursed with stone dressings. Roof covering of Collyweston slates laid in diminishing courses.
PLAN: the inn is aligned north-south and faces east onto the northbound side of the A1. The historic core of the original building is contained within the central bays of the frontage with the gabled bays at either end dating to the mid-1920s. The extensive rear elevations were added in the 1970s and 1990s.
EXTERIOR: the building has two storeys under a pitched roof with exposed rafter feet and ashlar chimney stacks resting on rubble stone bases. These probably date from the 1920s rebuilding when the C18 façade also appears to have been refronted with two gabled bays at each end: the left one is a rebuilding of the first two bays of the inn, and the right one is an addition onto the end of the building. The central three bays are lit on both floors by two-light windows with ovolo-moulded mullions, moulded dripmoulds, and leaded casements, most of which are boarded up. The gabled bay on the left has two ground-floor windows which are boarded up but presumably in the same style, and a door to the right, also boarded up. The first floor is it by two two-light mullioned windows. Underneath the second window, a small medieval stone sundial of simple design, found in 1926, is built into the wall. The gabled bay on the right has a C20 door flanked by three-light mullioned windows, and there are two three-light mullioned windows above. In between these a stone panel bears the words THE RAM JAM INN in raised lettering.
The right return (north elevation) is lit by two windows with a door in between (all boarded up), and two C20 windows above. These are followed by a wide gabled bay with a heptagonal bay window under a half-conical roof with leaded casements, also boarded up. The right half of the left return (south elevation) is obscured by a C20 single-storey, flat-roofed stone extension; and the left half by a two-storey gabled bay lit by stone mullioned windows, also added in the C20. The rear of the building is a series of later C20 rendered extensions of one and two storeys, added incrementally.
INTERIOR: the central three bays along the frontage form one room divided by two bridging beams which are roughly chamfered and scored, presumably having been retained or reused during the 1920s rebuilding. At the south end is an inglenook with a substantial bressummer, also chamfered and scored, and a partly blocked up brick fireplace with a semi-circular opening. This is most likely a creation of the 1920s in an attempt to give an ‘olde English’ character to the refurbished inn. The rear room of the north extension (lit by the heptagonal bay) has a plaster cornice embellished with a raised pattern of various leaves and fruits, which is also used on the two bridging beams, and dates to the 1920s Refurbishment. Other than this, the interior has been gutted and modernised.

On 30th July 2019 it was decided not to list the building, since it has undergone significant and multiple phases of alteration and rebuilding, resulting in little of the historic fabric or plan-form surviving internally.

"The Ram Jam in Rutland is one of the few coaching inns which can be seen by the side of the A1. Standing at Stretton, midway between the market towns of Stamford and Grantham in Lincolnshire, it was originally known as the Winchelsea Arms, named for the Earls of Winchelsea who were local landowners. By 1802 however, it was unofficially known as the Ram Jam House… Charles Blake was the landlord around the turn of the century, certainly by 1802, and he developed either a spirit or liqueur which he sold in bottles packed in small hampers for the convenience of the stagecoach passengers who alighted at his inn while the horses were changed. This drink he named Ram Jam, but again there is disagreement as to why. Some claim it is a variant of an Indian term for a table servant which the English soldiers in India corrupted to Rum John or Rum Johnnie."
(Information from 'All Things Georgian' website, 'https://georgianera.wordpress.com/2018/05/03/discovering-the-history-of-the-ram-jam-inn/', accessed 01/08/2018.)

<1> 1965-6, Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society, Volume 41, Vol 41 (1965-6), p58-9 (Journal). SLE5981.

"There is something about inns that attracts legend and evades strict historical truth. Not merely has Dick Turpin stayed at too many inns that could not have existed in his time, but there has been a deal of deliberate myth-making. The Ram Jam Inn on the Great North Road has a well executed sign showing the highwayman who deceived the landlady by telling her to ram one thumb and jam the other on two holes in the barrel while he escaped without paying his bill. The hostess in 1916 related this story, unblushingly, to the author's mother. The inn was originally called The Winchelsea Arms and has been rebuilt. A soldier returning from service in India bought it and there he made and sold a brand of spirit which he called "Ram Jam", an Indian phrase he had picked up whilst an Indian-Army Officer's batman. This beverage gave the inn its name some time but not long before 1818, for thus it appears on a map of that date. The more romantic story soon developed, but the truth is more mundane."

<2> Waites, Bryan (ed), 1989, Rutland Record, No. 9, No. 9 (1989), p324-328 (Journal). SLE6625.

The Winchilsea Arms presumably came into the possession of Daniel Finch c.1730 when he succeeded to his title and became Lord of the Manor of Oakham, and was given the family's coat of arms as its sign. It had become the Ram Jam House by 1781. Several sources suggest that the landlord was an officer's servant/a sergeant/a soldier who knew the secret of making a potent brew called "Ram Jam" with Indian origins. A print in the National Monuments Record collection shows the Ram Jam House with a small board over the door reading "Fine Ram Jam". The author notes that the landlords, the Blake family, appeared to have somehow amassed substantial riches, perhaps by selling 'delectable Ram Jam'.
Coysh said the building was 'a stone building constructed around a C14th alehouse which was thatched…". The print already referred to shows a three bay stone building with central entrance, with dormer windows, thatched, with end stacks. The building was altered in 1900, rebuilt in 1928 and underwent extensive alterations and additions in 1986.

<3> Finn, Neil, 2019, Historic environment desk-based assessment: land off Greetham Road, Greetham, Rutland (Unpublished document). SLE6913.

A desk-based assessment included several images of the inn.
Illustration c.1780, main part of building three bays (central doorway), two storeys, mullioned windows on ground floor, dormers on first floor. End chimney stacks. Stone with thatched roof. Single storey sections to either side. Signs over entrance read "The Ram Jam" and "The Ram Jam House".
In the early C20th photograph the building is longer - ?five bays, central and end chimney stacks, two storeys, stone with pantile roof.
The photograph taken after the 1929 reconstruction shows an H-plan building, end sections gable onto street (the south section is lower than the north section). The central section is three bays long. Two storeys, mullioned windows. Stone with ?slate or ?stone roof.

<4> Meek, James, 2022, Historic Buildings Record Level 2, The Ram Jam Inn, A1 Northbound, Greetham, Rutland, LE15 7QX (Unpublished document). SLE7121.

A Level 2 building survey was carried out in 2022. The C18th building was aligned N/S on the western side of the Great North Road. The building at this time consisted of the Inn, in the smaller part of the building to the south, and a residential property to the north. The building was limestone, with wooden sliding casement windows, and ceramic pantiles. In the 1920s the Inn was rebuilt in a Tudor Revival style. New extensions were built to the north and south, with gable ends to the road front. The building was given the appearance of a winged hall with projections to the west leading off from the two gables. The windows were replaced with stone mullioned openings. At this time the medieval sun dial and another piece of moulded masonry were incorporated into the building. The Inn retained some historic fabric - the original exterior walls of the original building and the dividing wall between the original Inn and the residential property. An inglenook had been retained as a feature.

Sources

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