Ringwood Society: Concerns raised about Lamb Inn conversion

The Ringwood Society expressed surprise that the owners would call last orders quite so quickly given the recent refurbishment and new management taking over in September 2022 at The Lamb Inn. 

The proposed conversion is for six flats and a house.

A spokesperson for the society said: “Our primary concern is the preservation of the historic fabric of the building which we don’t feel the design of the scheme, or the accompanying Heritage Statement has properly taken into account.

“The building has not been properly analysed, and the interior layout dismissed as of no interest and largely proposed to be swept away with walls moved and changed ad hoc.

The Lamb Inn (Image: Punch Partnerships)

“The proposed elevation treatments are not sufficiently well designed and the proposal for two new windows in the gable end to Hightown Road ignores the original form of this wall as an advertisement for the pub, as illustrated by a photo in the applicant's own Heritage Statement.”

According to owners Punch Partnership, The Lamb Inn on Hightown Road in Ringwood was not considered “a viable business” which came as a surprise to the current manager who understood he would be there for three to five years.

Ringwood town historian Mary Baldwin revealed in a recent article that the three-storey element has been suggested to date from the coming of the railway to the town in 1847. 

The lower two storeys were potentially part of the older public house of the same name which it replaced.

Punch Partnerships state in the planning documents that the pub was “extensively marketed by Savills for a period of approximately 14 months at the time of this application, to a wide audience with no substantial interest registered by public house operators or community groups”.