The Manor Hotel

The Manor Hotel

This hotel, formerly known as Lew House, is a country manor house largely created by Sabine Baring-Gould between 1881 and circa 1910. It incorporates 16th and 17th century features, some original to the site and others imported from elsewhere, presented in an Arts and Crafts interpretation of Tudor design, though conceived entirely as a late 19th century creation.

The building is constructed of dressed coursed Raddon stone and granite with granite dressings. Stone stacks, some with moulded granite strings and caps, rise through the roof structure. The roofs are slate with sprocketted eaves, gabled at the ends. Some ornamental slate-hanging appears to the first floor.

The house follows a south-facing H-plan with gabled east and west crosswings and a two-storey central porch. A parallel north range forms a rear courtyard. The principal facade is seven windows wide, symmetrical in overall composition but irregular in detail, dominated by a central two-storey gabled porch with projecting front east and west wings. Between the west wing and main range sits a projecting single-storey room with a battlemented parapet, formerly a separate porch to the west wing which served the ballroom, with a gabled roof rising above it. Deep eaves and hollow-chamfered granite mullioned windows with hoodmoulds run throughout, mostly featuring ornamental leading and square leaded panes to the first floor. Windows vary between two and six lights; the ballroom window has five transomed lights and the hall window has six lights.

The ornamental slate-hanging in the gable end of the west wing, swept out over moulded bressumers, is characteristic of Baring-Gould's buildings in the parish. The two-storey central porch features a round-headed moulded granite doorway flanked by granite columns on moulded bases, supporting an entablature and two panels of armorial bearings framed by paired granite shafts. A grotesque granite corbel sits below the central pair of shafts. A datestone of 1620 appears above the doorway, though the provenance of the doorway, porch and datestone is debatable. A three-light granite mullioned window sits above the entablature, and a slate sundial dated 1696 occupies the gable.

Linked to the east wing by a coped wall with a circa 17th century moulded round-headed granite gateway is a square two-storey pavilion with a steeply pitched pyramidal slate roof with sprocketted eaves. The pavilion has a round-headed granite doorway and mullioned windows. At the rear of the south range sits a semi-hexagonal embattled bay serving the dining room.

The north range has a slate roof with sprocketted eaves, gabled at the ends. On the south side facing the courtyard is a five-bay granite loggia of round-headed arches supported on columns with moulded bases and capitals, modelled on the 1637 almshouses at Moretonhampstead. Plans to erect a massive granite gateway to the rear courtyard were not executed, though some moulded jambs and carved spandrels survive to the west of the house.

Interior

The Sabine Baring-Gould interior remains almost completely intact, combining 16th and 17th century woodwork and 17th century plasterwork with late 19th century work produced by local craftsmen on Ruskinian principles under the owner's supervision.

The hall chimneypiece is dated 1626 and incorporates caryatids and a circa late 16th century frieze depicting a hunting scene. The parlour panelling includes Renaissance woodwork and a frieze of paintings of the virtues executed by Margaret Rowe (née Baring-Gould). Numerous fine decorated plaster ceilings throughout reflect Baring-Gould's conviction that "the ceiling alone" should not be "left in hideous baldness". The parlour ceiling is particularly elaborate with pendants and preserves its elaborate late 19th century colouring.

The long gallery features a canted ceiling incorporating part of a magnificent Jacobean ceiling rescued from 38 North Street, Exeter, enriched with pendants and floral and animal motifs. The 17th century plasterwork was extended on the same pattern by local craftsmen.

The ballroom contains a spectacular Rococo fireplace surround, reportedly of German origin, with two tiers of wreathed barleysugar columns supporting an entablature. The fireplace surround is flanked by putti on one side and a sun on the other, over panels with large arabesques and festoon drops. The panelled dado, decorated plaster ceiling, wall pilasters and deep frieze of plaster motifs under round-headed arches are all late 19th to early 20th century work.

The main staircase is a dogleg with moulded handrail and carved balusters of square section.

Historical context

The Manor of Lew Trenchard was purchased by Henry Gould in 1626 and remains in the possession of the Baring-Gould family. The Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould (1834–1924) was squire of Lew Trenchard and parson from 1881 until his death. A High Churchman, antiquarian and prolific author of fiction and theological works, he financed the reconstruction of Lew House from his writings. The present building very much reflects his personality and interests. Baring-Gould collected many Devon folksongs at Lew House, and the musicologist Cecil Sharp was a regular visitor. The Jacobean plasterwork is of particular importance, as the remainder at 38 North Street, Exeter, was largely lost when that house was demolished in 1972.