31, East Street

31 East Street is an early 18th-century house located in Ashburton. The front features an exposed stone rubble ground storey, while the second storey is slate-hung with unique, small fish-scale slates that are likely original. There is later slate-hanging on the face of the dormer and on the left side wall, and the house has a slated roof with a rendered chimney on the right gable end. The building is one room wide and two rooms deep, with a through-passage to the left of the ground storey. The staircase is located at the rear end of the passage to the right. The house has two storeys with a garret and is two windows wide.

On the ground storey, there is a four-panelled door to the left, with the bottom two panels flush. To the right, a pair of plain sash windows is set in a wide blocked opening. Above the ground storey, there is a moulded wood cornice with slate-hanging (which is not original) that sweeps out over it. The upper storey features six-paned sash windows in moulded flush frames, with the right-hand window consisting of two lights. The eaves have a coved cornice, and the dormer gable spans the entire front, featuring two six-paned sash windows and slate-hung bargeboards.

The interior was inspected during building work in 1977 and includes wood bolection-moulded chimneypieces, a wood stair with square newels, turned balusters, and heavy moulded handrails. The roof is unusual, featuring a square centre post braced at all four corners, and the front gable truss has a collar pegged to the face of the principal rafters. Similar fish-scale slates were discovered loose in the garret of Nos. 35-37 High Street in Totnes in 1989.