Manor House Hotel

Manor House Hotel

A house, now in use as a hotel, dating to around 1867 and extended in 1881 (as indicated by a datestone). The building is shown on Ordnance Survey maps as Chelston Cross. Parts of the interior are said to have been designed by R E Froude and H M Brunel for William Froude, a pioneer of experimental ship tanks.

The house is constructed of purple slatestone with grey limestone and polychromatic brick dressings. It has a tarred hipped slate roof with evidence of original ornamentally-cut slates. The chimney stacks feature diagonally-set brick shafts and projecting cornices above toothed friezes. The architectural style is Eclectic High Victorian.

The plan is irregular. An approximately rectangular main block forms the core, with its principal garden elevation facing south-east and overlooking the sea. The entrance is positioned on the north-west side into a stair hall. A service wing extends to the north-east on the same axis, with a probable chapel. A subsidiary wing extends at right-angles to the north-west, with a triangular service yard between the wings and a stable range on the north-east side.

The main south-east front is two storeys and attic, with a slightly asymmetrical arrangement of one bay, three bays, and one bay. It features rusticated grey limestone quoins and a toothed brick frieze below the eaves, with toothed brick sill bands. Windows are crank-headed, glazed with high-transomed casements with glazing bars. A central projecting lateral stack is corbelled out below the eaves, with flues dividing around the ground and first-floor windows. The extreme left bay has a canted bay with a steep peaked roof. The extreme right-hand bay has a hipped roof, extended around the 1880s with a canted bay with parapet, shoulder-headed windows, and a first-floor cast-iron balcony on stone brackets. The ironwork is similar to Torquay pavilion. A similar balcony extends to an attic dormer with a hipped roof. A set of attic dormers with deep eaves and cusped bargeboards are also present.

The service wing to the right is single-storey and attic across six bays, constructed in the same style. Projecting forward from this wing and parallel to it is a probable chapel with three lancet windows on the left and a canted bay on the south-east side.

The north-east entrance elevation features a gabled two-storey porch with a double-chamfered arched doorway and hoodmould. Above is a first-floor oriel window with a stone slate roof and plate glass windows. To the left of the porch is a two-light mullioned window in the gable. To the right of the porch are one ground-floor and one first-floor shoulder-headed window. Set at an angle is a three-stage tower with a toothed brick cornice below a deep hipped roof with sprocketed eaves, crowned by a lantern with a peaked roof and weathervane. Crank-headed windows are arranged in pairs and triplets throughout. A single-storey wing to the left, at an obtuse angle, is similar in style to the service wing.

The interior contains an extraordinary and spectacular full-height two-storey stair hall. The staircase, constructed in Columbian pine, is said to have been designed by H M Brunel and R E Froude. It features alternating diagonally-set stick and octagonal balusters and rises to a gallery on three sides of the hall. The gallery is supported on timber brackets springing from stone corbels. From the gallery, a flying flight of steps springs across the width of the hall to an attic room reached from a cantilevered landing. The balustrade of this flight has segmental-arched braces and resembles the side of a suspension bridge. The house retains many other features of original interest, including original doors, chimneypieces, and stained glass.