Eastgate (Part Of No 2)

This is a late 14th-century gatehouse, part of the medieval town defences of Totnes, with alterations dating circa 1835 and subsequent additions. The defences likely followed the line of earlier Anglo-Saxon borough defences, and a motte and bailey castle was built after the Conquest. Murage grants were received in 1264 and 1355, indicating ongoing repairs to the walls. The East Gate was probably altered and given a new Gothic appearance around 1835 when the original round-arched entrance and footway were replaced with a wide, flat-arched gateway.

The gatehouse is two storeys high above the archway. It has a Welsh slate roof and a square wooden bell turret with a tented roof and weathervane. The east front is stuccoed, featuring a coved cornice and crenellated parapet. A string course runs at second-floor level, above which is a clock, added around 1880. A splayed oriel window with a crenellated parapet is situated on the first floor. The four-centred arched gateway has a hoodmould. The west front is similarly stuccoed with a coved cornice and crenellated parapet, incorporating a clock. The first floor contains three sash windows with glazing bars, with panels and a coved cornice in between.

The room above the gateway features early 16th-century linenfold panelling, decorated with carved reliefs of heads, grotesques and arabesques, believed to have been brought from Berry Pomeroy Castle. A decorated plaster ceiling and a marble fireplace date to circa 1835. In 1850, Lord Seymour purchased the gatehouse and used it as a Mechanic's Institute and Reading Room. It now forms part of the Berry Pomeroy estate office, located at No 2 High Street.