The Manor Hotel

Details

SX 48 NE LEW TRENCHARD LEW TRENCHARD

4/107 The Manor Hotel - (formerly listed as Lew House) 14.5.52

GV II*

Hotel, formerly a manor house called "Lew House". Largely the creation of Sabine Baring-Gould, built between 1881 and circa 1910, incorporating C16 and C17 features some of which may be original to the house, others imported from elsewhere. Arts and Crafts Tudor and wholly late C19 in conception. Dressed coursed Raddon stone and granite with granite dressings. Stone stacks, some with moulded granite strings and caps. Some ornamental slate-hanging to first floor, slate roofs with sprocketted eaves, gabled at ends. South-facing H-plan with gabled east and west crosswings and 2-storey central porch. Parallel north range forms rear courtyard. 2 storeys. 7- window south front, symmetrical overall but irregular in detail with central 2-storey gabled porch and projecting front east and west wings. In the corner between the west wing and the main range is a projecting single-storey room, with a battlemented parapet formerly a separate porch to the west wing (ballroom). The roof is gabled to the front above this porch. Deep eaves and hollow-chamfered granite mullioned windows throughout, mostly with hoodmoulds. The ground floor windows have ornamental leading, square leaded panes to first floor windows. Transomed 5-light ballroom window, 6-light window to hall, other windows 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-light. Ornamental slate-hanging in the gable end of the west wing is typical of Baring-Goulds' buildings in the parish and is swept out over moulded bressumers. 2-storey central porch has round-headed moulded granite doorway flanked by granite columns on moulded bases supporting an entablature and 2 panels of armorial bearings framed by paired granite shafts. Grotesque granite corbel below central pair of shafts. Datestone of 1620 above doorway. The provenance of doorway, porch and datestone is debateable. 3-light granite mullioned window above entablature, 1696 slate sundial in gable. Linked to the east wing by a coped wall with a circa C17 moulded round-headed granite gateway is a square 2-storey pavilion with a steeply pitched pyramidal slate roof with sprocketted eaves. The pavilion has a round-headed granite doorway and mullioned windows. At the rear of the south range is a semi-hexagonal embattled bay to the dining room. The north range has a slate roof with sprocketted eaves, gabled at ends, and on the south side, facing the courtyard, a 5-bay granite loggia of round-headed arches supported on columns with moulded bases and capitals. The loggia is modelled on the 1637 almshouses at Moretonhampstead. Plans to erect a massive granite gateway to the rear courtyard were not executed, some of the moulded jambs and carved spandrels survive to the west of the house. Interior The Sabine Baring-Gould interior is almost completely intact, combining C16 and C17 woodwork and C17 plasterwork with late C19 work produced by local craftsmen on Ruskinian principles, supervised by the owner. The hall chimneypiece is dated 1626 and incorporates caryatids and a circa late C16 frieze of a hunting scene. The parlour panelling includes Renaissance woodwork and a frieze of paintings of the virtues executed by Margaret Rowe, nee Baring-Gould. Numerous fine decorated plaster ceilings, "Why should the ceiling alone be left in hideous baldness?" (Baring-Gould). The parlour ceiling is particularly elaborate with pendants and preserves its elaborate late C19 colouring. The long gallery has a canted ceiling incorporating part of a "magnificent" (Portman) Jacobean ceiling rescued from 38 North Street, Exeter, enriched with pendants and floral and animal motifs. The C17 plasterwork was extended on the same pattern by local craftsmen. The ballroom has a spectacular Rococo fireplace surround, said to be of German origin, with 2-tiers of wreathed barleysugar columns supporting an entablature. The fireplace surround is flanked by putti on one side and a sun on the other over panels with large arabesques and festoon drops. The panelled dado, decorated plaster ceiling, wall pilasters and deep frieze of plaster motifs under round-headed arches are all late C19/early C20. The main staircase is dogleg with moulded handrail and carved balusters of square section. The Manor of Lew Trenchard was purchased by Henry Gould in 1626. The house and estate are still in the possession of the Baring-Gould family. The Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924) was squire of Lew Trenchard and also parson from 1881 until his death. He was a High Churchman, antiquarian and prolific author of fiction and theological works. He collected many Devon folksongs at Lew House, to which Cecil Sharp was a regular visitor. Baring-Gould financed the reconstruction of Lew House from his writings and the present building is very much a reflection of his own personality and interests. The Jacobean plaster work is important particularly since the remainder at 38, North St., Exeter, was largely lost when the house was demolished in 1972. Sabine Baring-Gould An old English House (1898) Bickford H.C. Dickinson Sabine Baring-Gould Monk and Copeland Lew House Lew Tenchard church and Baring-Gould D. Portman Exeter Houses, 1400 - 1700 (1966)

Listing NGR: SX4588886068

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

92353

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Portman, D, Exeter Houses 1400-1700, (1966)
Monk, , Copeland, , Lew House Lew Trenchard Church and Baring Gould, ()
Dickinson, Bickford H C, Sabine Baring Gould, (1970)
Baring Gould, S, An Old English Home, (1898)

End of official list entry

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