Drake Manor Inn

The Drake Manor Inn, in Buckland Monachorum, is a building of the 17th century, with later additions likely dating to the 19th century. It may have originally served as a church house. The inn is constructed of rendered stone rubble with a gable-ended roof covered in slate. It has stone rendered rubble lateral stacks at the rear, with a rendered brick stack alongside, and a rendered brick axial stack. Originally, the building likely comprised a three-room layout with a through or cross passage. Two of the left-hand rooms now serve as bars and show evidence of older features; the room to their right appears to be a remodelling of an earlier structure, and the room beyond is a 19th-century addition. The left-hand rooms have rear lateral stacks and were likely originally separated by a passage. A small recessed room at the rear of the left-hand room, featuring a granite-framed window, possibly originally served as a stair tower, given its proximity to the fireplace, proportions, and small windows.

The front of the inn presents an asymmetrical five-window facade, with late 19th-century six-pane sash windows; the ground floor windows, except for the central one, have 20th-century wooden shutters. “Georgian style” panelled doors are located at the left and right of centre. A 19th-century extension is at the right-hand end, with 20th-century casements on the ground and first floors and a door to the right. A small gabled wing with a single granite-framed window is at the rear, towards the right-hand end.

Inside the left-hand room are chamfered cross beams with run-out stops. The fireplace in this room has a plain wooden lintel, probably a replacement, and a roughly chamfered granite jamb to the right. The adjoining room has a fireplace with hollow chamfered granite jambs; the original lintel has been removed and replaced with a higher stone arch with a keystone, probably inserted in the 19th century. The roof trusses consist of roughly constructed principal rafters lapped at the apex with lapped and pegged collars, likely dating to the 19th century.