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Summary

Coaching inn and hotel dating to at least the 1820s; according to one source, it may be 17th century in date. Stuccoed and blocked out; slate roof concealed behind parapet; stacks with rendered shafts with platbands; cast-iron rainwater goods. The building to the right (west) now the National Westminster Bank, was originally the assembly rooms to the hotel.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1292837: THE KING'S ARMS PUBLIC HOUSE

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX76NW/90
• Old Listed Building Ref (II)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• COACHING INN (Constructed, XVII to XVIII - 1650 AD? to 1800 AD)
• HOTEL (XIX - 1820 AD to 1829 AD)

Full description

Department of Environment, 1983, Buckfastleigh, 12 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV337043.

The Kings Arms Public House, fore street. Early / mid 19th century public house. Stuccoed front with parapet and moulded cornice. Two storeys. Four bays. Sash windows with glazing bars in moulded architraves with dog-ears and bracketed cills. Wide elliptical arched doorway to right of centre with pilasters, entablature, fanlight, sidelights flanked by thin pilasters and panelled double doors.

Department of Environment, 1985, Images of listed buildings in Buckfastleigh, 15/07/1985 (Photograph). SDV359974.

Quick, T., 1992, Dartmoor Inns, 59-60 (Monograph). SDV359976.

The Kings Arms is a 17th century coaching inn situated beside the original Exeter to Plymouth road. The stables where the spare horses would be stored were also used more recently when Buckfastleigh Racecourse was in operation and some owners and trainers would stay at the hotel. One of the upstairs rooms (now part of the National Westminster Bank) is where the first cinema pictures to be seen in Buckfastleigh were shown in 1919/20. Said to be haunted by the ghost of a girl who fell down a well situated in what is now the hallway.

Dartmoor National Park Authority, 1997, Buckfastleigh Conservation Area Partnership Scheme (CAPS) photographs (Photograph). SDV365552.

Ordnance Survey, 2017, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV359962.

Public House is depicted on the modern mapping.

Historic England, 2017, National Heritage List for England, Accessed 06/01/2017 (National Heritage List for England). SDV359963.

SX7466 FORE STREET 1011-1/7/97 (South side) 06/01/83 The King's Arms Public House - GV II
Public house and hotel. c1820s. Stuccoed and blocked out; slate roof concealed behind parapet; stacks with rendered shafts with platbands; cast-iron rainwater goods.
Plan: double-depth plan, 2 rooms wide with an entrance into hall from which an imperial stair rises with a gallery to the first-floor rooms.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. Symmetrical 5-bay, 4-window front. Parapet above deep projecting cornice. Central stuccoed doorcase has pilasters with moulded capitals, entablature and moulded cornice. Segmental-headed doorway with white marble step, paired doors, 3 panels to each leaf, with glazed side panels and a segmental-headed fanlight. All windows have eared moulded architraves and sill blocks and are glazed with early C19 hornless 12-pane sashes, bottom light of ground-floor window left blocked. 2-leaf half-glazed inner door with side lights and overlight with Gothick glazing bars. Rear elevation has rear centre lateral stack and early C19 12-pane sash windows.
INTERIOR: preserves original joinery including reeded doorcases and original stick baluster imperial stair with open string and brackets and stick baluster balustrade to first-floor stair gallery.
Historical note: the building to the right (west) now the National Westminster Bank (qv), was originally the assembly rooms to the hotel.
Listing NGR: SX7406966126.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8934 - Condition survey of Buckfastleigh Conservation Area

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