Sponne House of today would not be recognised by Archdeacon Sponne who, in 1446,purchased what was then the hostelry known as the Tabard Inn. He gave its income to the town to alleviate the parish taxes on the poor and to maintain the town's pavements. In 1643 it was renamed the Talbot and under that name it remained as an hotel until the 1970's. Known to Dean Swift as a welcome posting house on his journeys to and from Ireland, it now serves as a bank, a photographic film processing business [in 1986 a shoe shop] and the entrance to a shopping precinct.