Alfoxton Park Hotel

The Alfoxton Park Hotel is an 18th-century country house, later renovated and re-fenestrated in the 19th century. It is constructed of rendered rubble with a shallow, pedimented central block that slightly projects. The building has a dentil cornice which continues around the tympanum, and a bitumen-covered hipped slate roof with overhanging eaves. An asbestos slate-covered addition, independently roofed and with central brick stacks, extends to the left. A further brick stack is located at the rear of the main block.

The building is arranged with a double pile plan and the addition on the left was originally an orangery. The main block is two and a half storeys high and has a 2:3:2 bay arrangement. Dormer casements with four lights flank the pediment, which contains a circular window in the tympanum. The remaining windows are long, 19th-century, two-light casements, each with a keystone and blind box. A central, pedimented porch with Doric columns, a frieze and a dentil cornice leads to 20th-century half-glazed double doors. The ground floor of two bays on the right-hand side was largely obscured by ivy at the time of survey in August 1983.

To the right is a five-bay addition with a steeply pitched roof extending over a verandah supported by circular, rendered piers. A St. Albyn crest is visible on the wall. The five-bay return to the left has two segmental-headed dormers and similar fenestration to the front facade.

The interior has been significantly altered in the 19th and 20th centuries. The house holds architectural and historic interest, having been the home of William and Dorothy Wordsworth between July 1797 and June 1798. Dorothy Wordsworth commenced her journal here in January 1798, though she discontinued it two months later before restarting upon their move to the Lake District.