Description

SX 79 SW DREWSTEIGNTON DREWSTEIGNTON

5/112 Drewe Arms Public House
22.2.67

GV II*

Public house with private accommodation. C17, (possibly C16 origins), modernised in
late C19. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings; Stone rubble stacks, one still
with its original granite ashlar chimneyshaft, the others topped with late C19
brick; thatch roof, corrugated iron and slate to outshots.
Plan and development: T-shaped building. The main block has a 3-room plan and
faces south onto the village square. The kitchen at the right (east) end has a
projecting gable-end stack. The central room, maybe a former hall, has an axial
stack backing onto the kitchen. The bar at the left end has a gable-end stack.
Stair block projects at right angles to rear of the centre room. It seems likely
that the house began as a 3-room-and-through-passage plan house but now the service
end kitchen has been enlarged to include the passage and the passage doorways are
blocked. If so it was probably an open hall house but, since the present roof was
built in the C17 or C18, there is no actual evidence of this. The present layout is
the result of a thorough but superficial late C19 modernisation. The present front
door leads into the bar (the former inner room parlour) which has been subdivided
into 2 small rooms with a cross passage between them and the hall. From the back of
the passage a corridor connects with the kitchen and stairblock across the back of
the hall. Late C19 and C20 outshots across the back contain dairy cellars,
lavatories and extra bar accommodation. Main house is 2 storeys.
Exterior: regular but not symmetrical 4-window front of late C19 casements with
glazing bars. The front doorway is left of centre and contains a late C19 part-
glazed 4-panel door with a contemporary flat hood on shaped timber brackets. Roof
is gable-ended.
Interior: shows mostly the result of the late C19 modernisation and the joinery
detail and other fittings from that time survive virtually intact. The place has
had no modernisation work since. Nevertheless some C17 carpentry detail shows. The
bar has a plain soffit-chamfered axial beam. The hall has mid C17 axial beam; broad
ovolo mouldings with mutilated bar-step stops, and the kitchen has a soffit-
chamfered and step-stopped crossbeam. The roof is inaccessible but straight
principals show of probably C17, maybe C18, A-frame trusses. All the fireplaces are
blocked by C19 grates.
According to the owners the earliest deed dates from 1890 and refers to the New Inn.
In fact the place is remarkable for having had hardly any modernisation since then.
Although C17 features are probably hidden behind C19 plaster the buildings main
interest is a completely preserved late C19 public house.
The Drewe Arms is also one of a group of attractive listed buildings in the vicinity
of the Church of Holy Trinity (q.v).

Listing NGR: SX7358790865

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Drewe Arms at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17537479

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)