Easton Court Hotel

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SX 78 NW 4/103

CHAGFORD EASTON CROSS Easton Court Hotel

(Formerly listed as CHAGFORD EASTON Easton Cross Hotel)

GV II

Hotel, former farmhouse. C16 and C17, modernised, enlarged and converted to a hotel circa 1920. Granite stone rubble, some of it plastered; granite stacks, the hall stack with a granite ashlar chimney shaft with moulded coping; thatch roof, slate to outshots and extension.

Plan: the main block has a three-room-and-through-passage plan and faces south-east. It is built down a slight slope with the inner room at the uphill left (south-west) end. It has a rear corner stack (probably C18 but rebuilt in the C20). The hall has a large axial stack backing onto the passage and the service end room has a projecting gable end stack of probably C18 date. It may be that before the C18 this was a Dartmoor longhouse with a shippon in the service end room but there is no positive evidence of this. C19 and C20 outshots along rear and present stair in outshot to rear of hall. Hotel accommodation in a block projecting at right angles to rear of service end room and this was built circa 1920. Since main block roof was not inspected the development of the house cannot be ascertained although it seems probable that it began as some kind of open hall house. Now two storeys throughout.

Exterior: irregular four-window front of C20 casements with glazing bars. The front passage doorway lies right of centre. It contains a C20 door behind a gabled and thatch roofed porch. The outer arch has a rounded head made from a single piece of granite and inside are stone benches each side. It is thought to be C20 but may be earlier. Roof is gable-ended to right and hipped to left. The service end chimney shaft is of brick possibly as old as C18 but inner room chimney shaft of C20 brick. The hotel accommodation extension has a regular four-window front of C20 casements with glazing bars.

Interior: only the ground floor rooms were available for inspection at the time of survey. The rear passage doorway is now internal but still retains its C17 oak frame with an ovolo-moulded surround. In the service end room the crossbeam was replaced and the fireplace rebuilt in the early C20. Both hall and inner room have C17 plain soffit-chamfered crossbeams. The hall fireplace has a hollow-chamfered granite jambs and a soffit chamfered oak lintel (possibly a replacement). The inner room fireplace is a C20 rebuild. Roof not available for inspection at the time of survey.

Listing NGR: SX7193488768