28 High Street Linton

28 High Street, Unicorn, Red Lion, Clare House, Linton

History of Clare House

Listed Building:

House. C16, remodelled C18. Timber-framed and plastered with high painted brick plinth. Plain tile roof. Ridge stack with late C16 moulded brick base.

The original building may have been the Unicorn Inn which occupied this site. No 28 with No 26 became The Red Lion Inn c.1685, owned by the Webbs c.1720 and in early C19 became a posting inn.

Historic England

W M Palmer (1913):

A large inn called the “Unicorn” occupied the upper corner of Horne Lane in 1599, the name of the sign being derived from the Paris coat of arm. The present building probably dates from the C18; perhaps it was renamed after the Act of Union with Scotland; it was called the Red Lion in 1761. It was a noted posting house, and here the Colchester coach stopped every day either going to or from Colchester as late as 1840.

The name ‘Unicorn’ had been because of the three unicorn design on the shield of the Paris family.