MSO10682 - The Gables Hotel, Doverhay, Porlock (Building)

Cottage, now hotel. Probably C17, refenestrated and enlarged mid C19. Rendered over rubble, red sandstone random rubble with brick dressings in service wing, thatched roofs, lateral stone stack on south front, some brick stacks. Plan: probably 3-cell and cross passage lying west-east with L-plan north-west service wing addition and north-east one bay extension. Cottage orne style. East front: one and a half storeys, 2:1 bays, all wooden casements with trefoil headed lights and leading, diagonally boarded gables to dormers with decorative cornices, left gable end of original dwelling with additional 3-light gabled dormer, similar dormer right and 2-light casement in set back gable end of service wing right, ground floor left 4-light projecting bay with windows rising from ground level, similar 2-light right, and 2-light casement in right wing. Entrance on left return, 3 gabled dormer front with canted end bay left with oriel, tiled porch beside lateral stack. Interior not seen. A picturesque group similar in style to Doverhay House and Doverhay Lodge (qv) to south. (Photograph in NMR). [1] English Heritage Listed Building Number: 265462. First Listed on 02/01/1986. [2] L-plan. Stone, Render walls. Gabled roof [3] The Gables Hotel has origins as a 17th century cottage, probably three-cell with cross passage, with lateral stone stack on south front. It was enlarged and re-fronted in the mid 19th century with a red sandstone service wing with brick dressings, and thatched roofs throughout. The timber casements have trefoil lights and leading, and there are bargeboarded gables with decorative cornices, reflecting a “cottage-ornee” style. [4] The building was visited in April 2012 as part of the rapid condition survey of Exmoor's Listed Buildings 2012-13. It received a BAR score of 6. [5]