Torridge Inn

BIDEFORD

SS4526 TORRIDGE HILL 842-1/6/242 (East side) 19/03/73 Torridge Inn

GV II

Fomer public house. Early C19, with minor mid C19 alterations. Rendered stone rubble walls; part of rear wall has C19 timber-framing with red brick nogging. Hipped slate roof. Large original red brick chimney, with good moulded pots, at each end of ridge. Plan of 3-room frontage with stair-hall between the 2 left-hand rooms; 2-room rear wing to right, including original kitchen. 3 storeys with cellar; 4-window range, with a fifth window on the rounded corner to left. Doorway has moulded raised surround; cornice on enriched consoles; double-doors, each leaf with 2 flush panels. Windows all have shaped cement surrounds; sashes with 8 over 8 panes, except that in the third storey the top sashes have only 4 panes. On the rounded corner the windows have sashes with 10 over 10 panes, the upper third-storey sashes with only 5 panes. Raised cement quoins at right-hand end of front. Right gable-wall has 2 third-storey sash windows clearly visible from Torridge Hill; the front one has 4 over 8 panes, the rear one 2 over 2 panes. INTERIOR has much original detail and some of mid C19. Wooden dog-leg staircase with closed strings, thin square balusters and handrail ramped up over column-newels. Ground-floor left and right front rooms have dados with moulded rail and skirting, the rail in left-hand room reeded. Left-hand room also has good mid/late C19 panelled wooden bar. Kitchen has original fireplace with shelf on shaped brackets. All 4 rooms have original cupboards with panelled doors having 2-fillet ovolo-mouldings. On first floor, 2, 4, and 6-panel doors similarly moulded. Left-hand front room has dado with reeded rail. Late C19 stone chimneypiece with imitation marbling and coloured patterned tiles. Middle and right-hand front rooms have simple original wood chimneypieces, that to right with a cast-iron grate. Original roof with king-post and ridge trusses. Cellar with stone steps; stone and brick floor; wine racks and slate shelves. The building is marked Torridge Inn on Wood 1842 Map of Bideford, and closed as a public house in 1989. (Wood: Map of Bideford: 1842-).

Listing NGR: SS4532526316