The Barn

Cherry and Pevsner The Buildings of England:Devon 1989 p 446 includes the following: 'By far the most interesting houses are two on the fringes of the town.  At the E end, overlooking the sea from Foxholes Hill, The Barn (now a hotel), designed in 1896 for Major Weatherall by E.S.Prior, a brilliant exercise in Arts and Crafts design by a brilliant pupil of Norman Shaw, original equally as an architect and scholar.  An early example of the butterfly plan that became popular around the turn of the century.  Centre with far-overhanging gables to N and S, and wings coming out diagonally from this centre so that the entrance as well as the garden side take comfortably embracing attitudes.  The stonework highly odd, irregularly interspersed with large local red pebbles rounded by the sea, the chimneys of cyclopic thickness and roundness, the granite columns supporting the centre veranda on the garden side also deliberately shapeless.  Prior welded these local materials and details into a most satisfactory whole.  The roof, originally thatched, was rebuilt in slate after the house was gutted by fire in 1905.  The interior has been totally remodelled.  The six-sided entrance hall at first had a gallery leading to the bedrooms in the wings. '  Unfortunately Pevsner does not mention the garden.   The swimming pool and summer house may have been part of the original E.S.Prior design as they appear to be contemporary with the house.

Cherry & Pevsner: The Buildings of England – Devon, 1989: 445