Old Ship Hotel

The Old Ship Hotel is a house, later adapted as a hotel, built in 1711 by Henry Andrews of Woodlands. It replaced an earlier house dating from the 17th century. The construction uses coursed squared limestone with flush ashlar quoins and dressings; the rear is mainly in rubble, partially rendered. The front roof is stone slate, while the rear is mainly plain tile, with five courses of stone slate at the eaves; a wing has concrete double-Roman tiles.

The building presents a handsome, symmetrical facade with a wide central carriageway. To the right are the principal rooms and a main staircase, with a deep wing projecting from that side. The building is two storeys and has attics, with a seven-bay arrangement. At ground floor, there are three 24-pane sash windows, followed by a 24-pane sash, then above a disused door with a 25-pane top-glazed section and a 20th-century horizontal 15-light window. The first floor has seven two-light stone cyma mullioned casements with transoms and small-scale leading; windows 3 through 6 appear to be carefully replaced originals. Five roof-lights are set into the roof plane. A wide carriageway has a chamfered arch with pilasters underneath a cyma-moulded string across the front, above the sashes. The chamfered plinth dies to rise in the pavement on the left. A two-course stepped stone eaves cornice runs around the building, and there are two large brick stacks on the hipped roof.

The rear elevation has varied window types, including one wood cross-window with leading. Inside the carriageway, left and right are six-panel doors within eaves-moulded architraves, topped with broken segmental pediments that once supported finials. A further panelled door is situated on the right side, along with a two-light Yorkshire sash window and a three-light glazing bar casement.

The interior features a grand dog-leg staircase spanning two floors, with a heavy handrail, square newels, and turned balusters. On the ground floor, the front right room has a fireplace with a heavy bolection-mould surround, featuring Jacobean panelling behind it. In the bar, an early 18th-century bolection-mould fire surround is topped by a Jacobean overmantel, now beneath a 20th-century mantel shelf; a painting of Charles II hangs above. Some upper rooms have enriched plaster cornices. The external wrought iron sign, likely made by Kingston Avery in the mid-18th century, is large and elaborately detailed. The hotel was formerly on the main London to West Country route (the old A303) and is now bypassed.