Prince Hall

Prince Hall is a small country house, now used as a hotel, dating from circa 1780-90. It is constructed of plastered stone with a slate roof featuring overhanging sprocketted eaves, hipped at the left end and gabled over the wing. There are three rendered stacks – one at the left-hand end, one axial to the main range, and one at the right-hand end of the wing.

The house has a main range with a cross-wing to the right. The main range features an entrance hall running along the front, with a small room set to its right. Behind the hall are two principal rooms facing the garden. The cross-wing to the left contains a further principal room facing the garden and service rooms at the rear. The original staircase is located at the front of the entrance hall.

The exterior is two storeys with an attic. The garden front is asymmetrical, with a four-window facade to the main range, and a slightly projecting wing to the right. The windows are primarily 12-pane hornless sashes, some of which may be original, though ground floor windows to the main range have been replaced with 4-pane sashes of the 20th century. A roundheaded window is situated on the second floor of the wing. The rear entrance front incorporates a projecting wing with an original tall, roundheaded stair window. A 20th-century porch is centrally placed on the main range, sheltering a probably original double 6-panelled door, which in turn leads to an interior door featuring a fanlight above.

Inside, two of the principal rooms have marble fireplaces with tapering octagonal columns; the fireplace in the left-hand end room retains its original grate and square opening. This room also has a decorative cornice and ceiling band. The central room has a plain moulded band and cornice. The original open-string staircase, with turned balusters, turned and moulded newels with finials, survives. Other original joinery, including 6-panelled doors and panelled shutters, is also present.

To the left-hand end of the house, on the entrance side, is a rectangular cobbled courtyard enclosed on three sides by a tall crenellated wall. Opposite the house within the courtyard is a former coach house, now roofless.

Prince Hall is recognised as one of the 17 Ancient Tenements of the Forest of Dartmoor, first documented in 1521. It was acquired by Mr Gullet in 1780, and improvements to the building were initiated; these were completed by Francis Buller, a lawyer and judge, during the late 1780s. A print from 1797 depicts the house in a form similar to its current appearance.