Check House

Check House is a large detached house built around 1860, now functioning as a hotel. It is likely designed by Benjamin Woodward but completed by Charles Edwards in 1866. This Victorian Gothic house features a distinctive chequered pattern of knapped flint and stone with red brick and stone dressings. The steeply pitched slate roof has both hipped and gabled sections, with small gables that have shaped and pierced bargeboards.

The house has two storeys and an asymmetrical layout. A notable feature is the two-storey canted bay with a pyramidal roof. The windows have chamfered stone frames with shouldered and cusped arches. The south front is adorned with a cast iron verandah that has decorative pierced spandrels and a glazed tented roof, extending around a curved corner to the left. At the east end, there is a gabled timber porch with ornate bargeboards and a finial, along with a three-light window in the gable above. An external corbelled chimney breast on the side has set-offs and diagonal shafts. Additionally, there is a conservatory on the west side, likely added in the late 19th century.

Originally named Calverley Lodge, the house was built for Sir Walter Calverley Trevelyan, a geologist, antiquarian, and botanist, and his wife Pauline, who was a patroness of the Pre-Raphaelites. Sir Walter also constructed Seaton Bridge in 1877, which spans the River Ase.