Gaia House

Gaia House is a retreat house, formerly a rectory, dating to the late 17th century, with additions and alterations in 1847. The building is constructed of painted render with solid walls and has slate roofs. It has a double-depth plan with a third range that abuts and is at a right angle to the other two, resulting in three ranges with distinct architectural characteristics.

The front range, dating to 1847, is in a romantic "Tudor" style. It features a four-window front and a large, two-storied gabled entrance porch off-centre to the left, with angle buttresses and moulded coping with kneelers. A moulded doorway has a two-centred arch and hood-mould, leading to an inner door of two leaves. The upper part and fanlight above have small-paned glazing and margin lights. There is a window above the porch, and a stone bell turret with a bell in the gable, the latter projecting on corbels and featuring a shouldered head. A large projecting chimney stack with offsets to the right has a rebuilt shaft. The ground storey has windows on either side of the porch; these, and the four second-storey windows, have mullioned and transomed wood casements with two panes below the transom. All but the right-hand second-storey window have straight, heavily moulded hood-moulds.

The rear range is predominantly of late 17th century origin, with a four-window front and three large projecting stone chimney stacks, each topped with a pair of diagonally-set brick shafts from the 19th century. Most windows, except for a 19th-century French window on the ground floor to the left, have three-light wood casements with mullions of square section, exhibiting light ogee mouldings internally and ovolo mouldings externally. A half-landing stair window is positioned as the third window from the left on the second storey, with a small 19th-century doorway of four-centred head beneath it. Two dormer windows have barge-boards and finials of 19th-century date.

The interior features a wooden dog-leg staircase with closed moulded strings, a flat handrail, square newels, and turned balusters rising to a garret. The balusters, presumably of late 17th-century profile, have been re-set at wider spacings. The roof structure is likely from the 19th century. A lower range has a roof mostly at right angles to the other two, except at the garden end which has a gabled roof with a brick stack. Later brick shafts are in the gable, alongside a C17 stack with a tapered top. The rear wall has three-light windows on each storey, matching those in the adjacent range. The roof structure has not been inspected. It is possible that earlier ranges contain fireplaces and features hidden under plaster. The property was formerly known as Denbury Rectory, and is referenced in White's Directory of Devonshire 1850 on page 433.