Hengar

Details

ST TUDY SX 07 NE 2/140 Hengar

GV II

Country house, now converted into restaurant and part of holiday complex. Rebuilt in 1905 (datestone) after an extensive fire in 1904 destroyed the earlier house. Built for Sir William Wallace Rhoderick Onslow. Granite ashlar with granite and freestone dressings. Steeply pitched slate roofs. Granite ashlar axial chimney stacks and brick end stack on rear wing. Plan: Main range of single depth plan flanked by 2 cross wings and service range in large rear wing on left. The central entrance, through a single storey porch, is directly into the huge reception hall which is heated a either end by fireplaces in axial stacks and lit from front and rear by large windows. The impressive imperial stair rises from opposite the entrance, continuing to right and left across the rear wall up to the landings which give access to the main reception rooms in the first floor of the cross wings. The service rooms are accommodated in the tall wing on rear left, heated by an end stack. Tudor style. Exterior: 3-storeys and attic. Symmetrical 3:5:3 window front with single storey porch and 2 shallow projecting wings which are gabled to front with parapet coping, decorated with ball finials. Central range has two 3-light and two 2-light granite mullioned windows flanking the central porch which has stepped angle buttresses, moulded strings, parapet and a 4-centred arch to the door. The five tall mullion and transom windows above light the entrance hall and stair within. 5 gabled full dormers to attic above. The wings to right and left have 3 adjoining mullion and transom windows which light the reception rooms on the first and second floors and a small slit opening lighting the gable end of the attic above. In the right hand side elevation the ground floor of the cross wing has an arcade of 5 round headed arches which are glazed with a late C20 door in the centre. 3 mullion and transom windows on the first floor and three 2-light mullion windows to the seconds. 2 gabled full dormers to the attic. In the rear service wing of 3-storeys and attic and shallow 2-storey range adjoining are several pieces of reused dressed granite from the earlier house, including a 4- centred arch with carved spandrels. Interior: Impressive large entrance hall heated by fireplaces at either end which have the original freestone Gothic chimney-pieces with 4-centred arched openings. Imperial stair with closed string, moulded rail, square newels and carved balusters, rises from opposite the entrance and continues across the rear wall. Doorcases with 4-centred freestone arched openings, several with carved spandrels decorated with ball motifs. The entrance hall remains largely unaltered although the reception rooms and service wing has had some alterations with removal and insertion of partitions. The earlier house at Hengar together with the demesne lands, formed a parcel of the manor of Penrose Burden in St Breward parish. Anciently the seat of the Billings, alias Trelawder, who carried it to the Trelawnys of Coldrinnick. In 1662 it was taxed for 8 hearths. In 1847 it was bequeathed to Sir Henry Onslow. Kelly Directory of Cornwall 1935 Maclean, Sir John Parochial and Family History of the Deanery of Trigg Minor, 1876. Polsue, J Lake's Parochial History of the County of Cornwall, 1867 reprinted in 1974 Stoate, T L Cornwall Hearth and Poll Taxes 1660-1664, 1981

Listing NGR: SX0794476938

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

67772

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Polsue, J, Lakes Parochial History of the County of Cornwall, (1872)
Stoate, T L, Cornwall Hearth and Poll Taxes 1660-1664, (1981)
Kellys Directory in Cornwall, (1935)

End of official list entry

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