The Royal Oak Public House

The Royal Oak Public House is a public house dating from the late 17th century. It features a whitewashed and rendered exterior with a thatched roof, which is hipped at the right end and gabled at the left end. The left gable has a stone stack with a stone shaft that has been partly rebuilt in brick, and there is an axial stack with a brick shaft, along with a late 19th-century or later rear lateral stack. The original layout from the late 17th century appears to have been a single-depth structure, two rooms wide, with a hall/kitchen at the left end and a smaller lower end room that may have originally been unheated. The late 17th-century staircase was located next to the hall/kitchen stack, although the exact position of the original doorway is unclear. There have been later rear additions, and 20th-century alterations likely include the removal of most of the cross wall between the principal and lower end rooms, as well as the insertion of the lower end stack.

The building is two storeys high with an asymmetrical three-window front. The right corner of the building is rounded, and the thatch eaves are eyebrowed over the first-floor small pane casements. The front door is located to the left of centre and is flanked by three-light casements, each with three panes per light and shutters, along with a similar two-light casement to the ground floor right.

Inside, the hall on the left features a large open fireplace with stone jambs and a chamfered timber lintel with scroll stops. A rounded wall to the right of the stack indicates where the former staircase was located. The interior also has exposed cross beams and joists. The first-floor room above the hall contains a fireplace with stone jambs and a chamfered lintel with scroll stops. Although there was no access to the roof space during the survey in 1986, it is likely that late 17th-century trusses still exist. The Royal Oak is situated on a prominent corner site in the centre of Ideford village.