Crook Inn, Crook Hill

The Crook Inn, situated on Crook Hill, is an early 19th-century hotel incorporating earlier fabric, with significant additions and interior remodelling in 1935 by James Taylor. A further 2-storey house sits to the rear (west), alongside an L-shaped ancillary building to the southwest. The stonework of the main hotel is painted white, with black dressings and timberwork.

The east elevation is three bays wide and features a continuous cill band at first-floor level. A boarded timber door, topped with a 2-pane fanlight and cornice, is centrally positioned. The rear annex reveals two single windows and a dormer window.

The south elevation displays the two-bay piend-roofed main block to the right, with windows featuring louvred shutters at first-floor level. A 5-bay single-storey addition obscures the ground floor, while a two-leaf glazed timber door is set within a moulded surround, flanked by curved bays with metal-framed curved glazing. A metal balcony, incorporating a crook motif and a painted wrought-iron balustrade, extends above the curved bays.

The west elevation is largely hidden by a single-storey extension. The north elevation showcases a regularly fenestrated two-bay section of the main block, alongside a gabled annex and a three-bay single-storey extension at ground floor. A timber-panelled door with a curved projection sits to the right, while two tripartite windows and two narrow windows are positioned to the left.

The interior features extensive 1930s timber panelling in the reception area, a sweeping stair banister with a metal handrail, and a round-arched chimneypiece with glazed brickwork. The main bathroom displays two-tone green and yellow vitreous panels, while the ladies’ toilets have Art Deco basins and toilets, two-tone blue vitreous wall panels with black frames and mirrors, and a matching weighing machine. The gentlemen’s toilets are similarly decorated with cream vitreous wall panels, red and black frames, mirrors, basins, and a urinal.

The garden features swagged wrought-iron railings with circular finials and crook-shaped posts. The rear house is two storeys high, with rubble construction, later window and porch openings to the ground floor, and timber cladding with modern windows at first floor. The L-shaped ancillary building is a single-storey, piend-roofed outbuilding with white-painted rubble and altered openings. Small-pane glazing is found in timber sash and case windows of the main block, while the 1930s additions have metal-framed lying-pane glazing. Dark grey slates cover the roof, with lead flashings. Cast-iron down pipes and rhones are present along with corniced chimneys with circular grey/black cans.