Tremeer and terraces in garden to east

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 20 June 2023 to add attribution to architect William Bonner Hopkins, remove superfluous source details from text and to reformat the text to current standards

SX 0676-0776
8/162

ST TUDY
Tremeer and terraces in garden to east

GV
II
Large house and garden terraces. Possibly C16 origins with records dating from the 1430s. Partly altered in early C17 and rebuilt in 1798 for a Dr. Reed. Extended in 1899 (datestone) for the Hext family by architect William Bonner Hopkins. Slatestone rubble and snecked granite, slate hung on the south east and south west elevations and rendered on the north east front. Double span slate roof with gable ends and rendered axial stacks with a projecting lateral kitchen stack.

Plan: complicated triple pile plan with several thick internal cross walls, several C17 blocked fireplaces in the cellar and one late C16 fireplace on the ground floor suggesting that the house was probably only partly rebuilt in 1798. Main entrance on north east elevation with rear entrance on south west and garden front to south east. The house is built into a slope with the ground rising to the north west and a large cellar extending underneath the greater part of the house. The main entrance on the north east leads into a stair hall and beyond into a large colonnaded vestibule in the centre of the house with a further stair hall to rear. To the south east, on the left of the hall, overlooking the garden are two reception rooms heated by an axial stack with back-to-back fireplaces with a study to rear left. To the right (north west) is a further reception room, heated by an axial stack with a kitchen to rear right heated by a rear lateral stack. The service rooms were accommodated in the cellar. An early C19 engraving of the house illustrates the south east garden front with a canted bay window continuing the full height and with a single rather than double roof span. In 1899 the north east elevation was remodelled and partly extended with a shallow canted bay projection, the roof was altered and the canted bay on the south east garden front remodelled. The 1899 remodelling is in Arts and Crafts style.

Exterior: the north east front of 1899 is in the Arts and Crafts style. Two storeys, cellar and attic. Symmetrical twin-gabled front with three-light attic windows with ventilation slits above in the gables. The ground and first floor projects and has a canted two-storey porch at the centre flanked by two-light windows on the left side and four-light windows on the right side. The doorway has a semi-circular open pediment containing the Hext coat of arms with the date and motto in a cartouche; the doorway opening has a cambered head. The doorway is flanked by very small single light windows and the first floor window above has three-lights flanked by two-lights in the canted sides of the porch. All the windows have granite frames and iron casements with leaded panes, the ground floor windows have transoms.

South east garden front of two storeys, cellar and attic. To left of centre a canted bay window to cellar, continued with a curved bay window above and terminating in a gable which rises above the parapet of the main range. Two- and three-light mullion and transom windows to right and left. A Venetian window with a granite surround lights a C19 stair on the south west elevation.

Interior: reception room on east has a circa late C16 roll moulded granite fireplace with a segmental arch decorated with a triangle and ball motif. 1904 Art Nouveau copper hood. Reception room on north with an exceptionally large fireplace with bolection moulded surround, raised and fielded panel above and ceiling with plastered chamfered intersecting beams with moulded cornicing. Early C19 open well stair on south west, the first stage with turned newel, stick balusters and ramped rail and the upper stages far plainer with rectangular stick balusters. Circa 1899 open well stair on north east of pine in late C17 design with flat splat balusters, square newels and a heavy moulded rail. First floor with a late C18 cast iron grate to bedroom on west.

Terraced gardens on the south east, possibly C17 in origin and remodelled by Major General E.G.W. Harrison in the 1940s. Several flights of granite steps with granite piers and stone rubble circular piers with moulded caps.

Marked by Norden in circa 1584 as seat of Edward Lowre. Birthplace of Sir William Lower, author who died in 1662 and of Richard Lower, M.D. (died 1690) Physician inordinary to Charles II, who published various medical works and was associated with the first blood transfusion. In 1662 the Hearth Tax returns record eight hearths. After the Second World War Major General E. G. W. Harrison lived at Tremeer and was responsible for the design of the gardens.

Listing NGR: SX0616676677

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

67792

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Davies, G, Parochial History of Cornwall founded on the Manuscript Histories of Mr Hals and Mr Tonkin, (1838)
Norden, , Speculi Britanniae Pars A Topographical and Historical Description of Cornwall, (1728)
Polsue, J, Lakes Parochial History of the County of Cornwall, (1872)
Maclean, J, Parochial and Family History of the Deanery of Trigg Minor in the County of Cornwall, (1879)
Stoate, T L, Cornwall Hearth and Poll Taxes 1660-1664, (1981)
Cornwall in Kelly's Directory, (1835), .
Edridge, T, A New Shrub Garden in Cornwall in Country Life, Vol. 128, (1960), 1018-1020

End of official list entry

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