The Drewe Arms is a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

on the north side of The Square in

Drewsteignton Drewsteignton is a village, civil parish and former manor within the administrative area of West Devon, England, also lying within the Dartmoor National Park. It is located in the valley of the River Teign, west of Exeter and south east of O ...

, Devon, England. Built in the 17th century, the building was modernised in the late 19th century. There may have been a public house at the site in the 16th century. The building is made of cob on a stone base, with stone chimneystacks including one of granite. The roof is a combination of reed

thatching Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge ('' Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

, corrugated iron and slate. Built in a T-shape plan, the main area holds three rooms, a kitchen, a main room and a bar. There is a staircase at the rear of the centre room. It appears that the original building was an open

hall house The hall house is a type of vernacular house traditional in many parts of England, Wales, Ireland and lowland Scotland, as well as northern Europe, during the Middle Ages, centring on a hall. Usually timber-framed, some high status examples wer ...

. The additional blocks were built in the late 19th and early 20th century, and include cellars and toilet facilities. The interior was largely modernised in the 19th century, but no further modernisation has occurred and some of the 17th century woodwork remains. The deed dates for the Drewe Arms to 1890, when the public house was known as the "New Inn". The name was changed to the Druid Arms, and then to the Drewe Arms in the 1920s. The building was designated Grade II* listed status on 22 February 1967. It is on the

Campaign for Real Ale The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is an independent voluntary consumer organisation headquartered in St Albans, which promotes real ale, cider and perry and traditional British pubs and clubs. History The organisation was founded on 16 ...

National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors The National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors was a register of public houses in the United Kingdom with interiors which had been noted as being of significant historic interest, having remained largely unchanged for at least 30 years, but us ...

. In 1919 the Drewe Arms was taken over by Mabel Mudge, who ran the public house for 75 years before retirement, giving her the record of the longest-serving landlady in the UK. The pub was subsequently a Whitbread pub, an Enterprise Inns pub, and a Stonegate Inns pub, but successive landlords struggled to make it pay. In late 2023 the pub was acquired by the local community to be run as a community asset.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drewe Arms, Drewsteignton National Inventory Pubs Grade II* listed pubs in Devon