Crideford Inn

The Crideford Inn is likely a 15th and 16th century house, with further floors added in the 17th century. It is said to have originally been a Nunnery. The building is constructed of rendered stone rubble and cob walls, with a corrugated iron roof replacing an original thatched roof. It has gable ends. A tapered rubble stack with a brick shaft is on the left-hand side, with a rendered lateral stack at the rear and a tapered axial stack with granite thatch weatherings. The plan is of four rooms, with a curved front wall and a slightly serpentine rear wall, incorporating a bowed stair projection.

The building is two storeys high; the front has an irregular five-window arrangement. There are 2-light, 19th century casements to the first floor, third and fourth windows from the left, each with six panes per light. A 16th century oak mullioned window with four ogee-headed chamfered lights and a rebate for a shutter is located on the ground floor to the right. Most windows have leaded glass dating to around 1980. There are 20th century doors in the second and fourth openings from the left, and at the far right opening. A straight chamfered 2-light oak mullioned window is located in the right-hand gable end, serving the first floor of that bay. A 20th century extension is attached to the right.

Internally, there is an oak jointed cruck roof structure, said to be smoke blackened on the underside of the thatch and roof timbers. Two cruck frames are visible, one with a ‘grown’ cruck and unjointed cruck to one side, with threaded purlins. Chamfered and stopped oak lintels are over the fireplaces in rooms 1, 2 and 3. The fireplace in room 3 has monolith granite jambs and an ovolo-moulded lintel from another building inserted around 1980, below the original. Chamfered and stopped cross beams are in rooms 1 and 2, while scratch moulded joists are in rooms 1 and 3. Room 3 also features ovolo-moulded cross beams with cross and stepped bar stops, likely originally part of the hall. An open oak stud partition divides room 3 from room 4, which has a lower floor and ceiling level. Two axial beams with wide chamfers, stepped and run-out stops, and similar joist detail suggest a 16th-century date for this ceiling; other ceiling beams date to the 17th century. A stair with solid oak treads was removed from room 4 around 1980. A mosaic floor with the date 1081 was reportedly seen beneath a cobbled floor during repairs.