Finehay

Finehay is a house, originally built as an inn in 1630 for Sir John Davy. It was extended in the 18th century and again in the 19th century. The house is colourwashed and rendered, with the earliest part built of cob on low stone rubble footings, and the 19th-century wing of stone. The roof is slate, formerly thatched, and gabled at the ends. It has front lateral and end stacks, and a rear lateral stack to the 19th-century kitchen wing.

The building's design is complex, evolving through several phases. The main range faces east, with an east wing at right angles and a second wing set forward to the north. The original south end of the house is single-depth and two rooms wide. The left-hand room is currently used as storage and is unheated, having potentially lost a stack from the left end, which has been rebuilt. The adjacent room, heated by a front lateral stack, retains 17th-century carpentry detail. The end of the hipped roof of the 17th-century range is visible in the attic. A later phase added an east wing and extended the main range to the north. These rooms were used as a parlour and a stair hall and cellar by the 19th century, with an entrance in the angle between the wing and the 17th-century block. A final 19th-century addition provided a kitchen wing to the north.

The east front is asymmetrical, with two windows to the left (south) of the east wing, one window to the end of the east wing, and two windows to the 19th-century kitchen wing. Most windows are 19th or 20th-century timber small-pane casements. A lean-to porch is in the angle between the main range and east wing, with a direct entrance into the kitchen wing and a door into the storeroom to the left. There is an external stone staircase to the loft over the storeroom on the left return.

Inside, the entrance opens into a stair hall with slate paving. The left-hand room features deeply chamfered crossbeams with run-out stops and an open fireplace, retaining its original but damaged 17th-century lintel. A 19th-century serving hatch to the cellar has been preserved. The ground-floor room in the east wing retains a circa mid-19th-century timber chimney-piece and iron grate.

The roof construction reflects the building's development: a pegged 17th-century collar rafter roof to the left with straight principals, an 18th-century roof with an X apex to the east wing, and a 19th-century roof to the kitchen.

The documented origins of the building as a purpose-built early 17th-century inn are considered particularly interesting.