The Old Inn

The Old Inn is an inn, now operating as a restaurant, dating to the mid to late 17th century, with significant refurbishment, rearrangement, and enlargement in the mid 19th century. The original section is built with plastered cob on stone rubble footings, while the 19th-century additions are of plastered stone rubble. The stacks are of stone rubble, topped with 19th- and 20th-century brick, and the roof is slate (originally thatched). The building has a double-depth plan, originally with a front and back room on either side of a staggered passage. The main rooms face south, with service rooms to the rear; the right-hand room has been opened into the passage. A staircase rises at right angles to the passage, behind the front left room. The 17th-century part is in the front, with the rear rooms added in the late 19th Century. Stacks are located at the gable end of the right-hand room, laterally behind the room to the rear, and axially within the 17th-century rear wall of the front left room, having formerly been lateral. Externally, the front has a three-window arrangement of 16-pane sashes, some replacements with horns. The centrally positioned front doorway has a 19th-century part-glazed panelled door, a plain stucco architrave, and an 8-pane sash side light. The roof is gable-ended, with a front pitch over the original section and a rear pitch extending over the added rear rooms. The right end wall contains further 16-pane sashes, and one horned 20-pane sash. The interior largely reflects the late 19th-century refurbishment, although some 17th-century features remain visible. The front right room has a granite fireplace with a soffit-chamfered oak lintel. The front left room’s fireplace is also granite, with a reused chamfered and scroll-stopped oak lintel, and the blocked-up remains of a large side oven. The three-bay roof of the front section is supported by 17th-century A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars. The Old Inn is part of a group of attractive listed buildings located at the centre of Drewsteignton village.