Treverbyn Vean

Details

SX 16 NE ST NEOT TWO WATERS FOOT

9/123 Treverbyn Vean

GV II*


House, c1858-62, exterior by G Gilbert Scott and interior by William Burges, for Colonel Charles Cox, Squared, coursed limestone and granite dressings, large exterior stacks to sides and rear and central ridge, and a large exterior stack with setoffs and a round shaft to the rear of the kitchen; grey slate cross-gabled roof PLAN: Double-depth with N great hall, and service rooms to the NE with a detached kitchen block. 2 storeys; 5-window garden front, EXTERIOR: An irregular range in Tudor Gothic Revival style. Has good elevations to four sides, with simple chamfered mullion windows under label moulds. SE garden front has coped gables each end set forward, a 2-centre arched doorway with hood mould in the right-hand side of the central section with steps up and a boarded door with strap hinges; a pair of 3-light transom windows to the left beneath a 4-light and two 2-light first-floor windows, The gables have 4-light transom windows with label moulds, and a 2-Iight first-floor oriel with moulded base to the left gable. SW side has a large canted bay to the right with 7 transom lights and hipped roof and an external stack against the right-hand corner, 4-light windows to the left side, and large central4-Iight transom window to the stairs. The NE side has a left-hand external stack with a 3-light window to its right, and a right-hand projecting servant's block with an external stack and 3-light window in the right-hand side. The main entrance front has a large central gabled porch, with a 4-centre arched moulded door with label mould and decorated spandrels; the label rises to include a heraldic device. At either end are gables as the front each with an exterior stack to the inner side, the right-hand one blind, the left-hand one with 4-, 3-, and 2-light windows; irregularly spaced 2-light windows to the left of the porch, and a large 4-light transom window to the right-hand hall. Square plan kitchen range has a pyramidal roof and bellcote, wide 6-light transom window on the W side and a large N exterior stack; on the E side is a single storey former larder and scullery , and it is connected to the house by a short passage with side windows.
INTERIOR: Includes many original features including a good dogleg stair, a fine full-height hall with a C15-style arch-braced collar truss roof with wind braces, gallery on one side with cusped braces and pierced panels, and a French Gothic style fireplace with attached columns and tall tapering hood; panelled ceilings with carved bosses; boarded 4-centre arched doors with strap hinges and catches, 2-leaf doors have linen-fold panelling and fine brass door furniture. HISTOR y : The little-altered fabric and substantially intact interior are a unique combination of the work of two leading Gothic Revival architects. Though the great fireplace has gone, the house retains more of its original interior than any other by Burges, apart from those for Lord Bute at Cardiff Castle and Castle Coch and Sir John Heathcote Amory at Knightshayes in Devon. In his interiors Burges attempted to '...conjure up, in Victorian terms, the artistic spirit of a medieval house. Many contemporaries regarded these attempts as the pinnacle of Burges's success' (Crook, 'William Burges', 1981, p300). Treverbyn Vean is graded for the importance of these surviving interior features as well as its fine exterior composition by Scott, an unusual choice of style for this architect. (Drawings by Scott in possession of owner).

Listing NGR: SX1845765168

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

62261

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Mordaunt Crook, J, William Burges and the High Victorian Dream, (1981), 300

End of official list entry

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