Tregembo Farmhouse

Details

ST HILARY SW 53 SE

2/131 Tregembo Farmhouse

GV II*

Farmhouse. Circa -mid C17, remodelled late C17 and remodelled slightly in the circa mid C18. Granite rubble with granite dressings. Mostly scantle slate roofs with granite ashlar stacks over the gable ends, some asbestos slate to left hand wing. Some C17 handmade crested clay ridge tiles. Plan: U-shaped plan to front with stair hall left of middle of the main range and partly within kitchen wing at right angles behind the stair hall, plus another shallow wing in the form of a first floor room carried on 2-bay open colonnade the columns reused behind the right hand side. The front wings at right angles to either side of the front are of equal depth, each with 1 room plan. The left hand wing has a ground and first floor parlour. The right hand wing has a former stair tower on the right between large kitchen with enormous fireplace with large oven to the ground floor and chamber/parlour over. There is a service stair to the right of the middle room of the main range. Except for the front and rear kitchens, all the rooms are large (some later divided) and seem to have been parlours or principal chambers. The attic is approached by both stairs, the main stair rising to the roof space as if to a second storey originally. All the roofs seen are C18 or later and it is probable that the original roof space was for servants quarters and secondary chambers. The attic floors are carried on C17 cross beams. It is possible that the circa early-mid C17 Doric colonnade was formerly part of a central feature at the front of the house, possibly carrying a range closing the U-shaped plan at the front (compare Go dolphin House qv. and Pendeen Manor qv). There is a reused chamfered quoin in the left corner of the right-hand wing which is evidence of some rebuilding. There was also once a bothy at right angles to this wing on the right. The surviving present plan is mostly C17 fabric and part may incorporate earlier walls. There is some C18 or C19 rebuilding to the right hand wall of the rear kitchen, to the right-hand wall of the main range of the house and possibly to the rear wall of the main range. Exterior : 2 storeys. Regular 1:2:1 bay front facing roughly west. The first and last bays are the gable ends of 2 deep wings at right angles to the front both with 1 window fronts facing into the courtyard. The main range front has doorway left and ground and first floor windows right. All the window openings facing into the front courtyard are wide but were formerly wider probably when fitted originally with granite mullioned windows, now spanned by oak lintels (some, if not all, of which are reused ship's timbers) and fitted with C19 or later sashes. The door is C18 with panels and with circa mid-late C18 Chinoiserie-glazed top panel. The gable end of left-hand wing has 2 original chamfered single-light windows to the ground floor (one either side of the fireplace). The rear gable end of the same wing has the outer frame of a former 2-light window with stooling for a central mullion. Another original C17 3-light window complete with mullions survives to the left hand wall of the rear kitchen wing and to the first floor towards the right is a C18 12- pane 2-light casement with thick glazing bars. To the ground floor of the back wall are 2 chamfered openings, one of them a former doorway, possibly in situ, and there is a similar chamfered doorway with diagonal stops in the right hand wall of the front kitchen wing. The stair hall is partly in the rear wing and access to its first landing is through a doorway in the left hand wall of this wing, fitted with 2 bolection moulded outer doors protected by a hood and with a C18 inner door with wide glazing bars to the glazed upper panel (the front door also has a C18 inner door). Interior : virtually all the structure, carpentry, joinery and the architectural features are C17 or C18. Circa mid-C17 features : chamfered granite fireplace in the front left hand room (with unfinished tooling to the chamfer of the lintel); the fireplace of the front kitchen with dressed granite domed oven; ovolo-moulded ceiling cross beams with ogee-tongue stops, probably throughout but some with circa late C17 plaster cornices added and some hidden by C18 or later flat ceilings, and an ovolo- moulded doorframe with bar and tongue stops. Circa late C17 features : fine open- well stair with closed string, heavy column-turned balusters and turned finials and pendants to panelled newels (the upper flight is oak grained, possibly original); fielded and bolection moulded panelling and chimneypiece to rear right hand room and chimneypieces to front chamber in right hand wing, rear chamber of left-hand wing, to the chamber over the rear kitchen; and a fine bolection-moulded panelled room to the front left chamber with very robust torus moulded central oval with bay leaf carving. C18 features : many or 3-pane doors and moulded ceiling cornices, chair rails and a nearly complete circa mid-C18 panelled room to ground floor left wing with dentils to the moulded cornice. The site of this house is possibly pre-Conquest. There is reference to an Edw' Berner before 1083 and the name Tregembo has been variously spelt including Tregebri and Tregember. A circa 1800 cupboard has the name William Borlase written on a label, possibly a descendant of the Borlase family of which William Borlase the C18 antiquarian was a member. Sources : Mr Tomlin, present occupier (1986). A fine C17 house with high quality C17 and C18 features. The colonnade, though probably resited, is particularly interesting (compare Godolphin House qv. Breage parish and Pendeen Manor Farmhouse, St Just parish).

Listing NGR: SW5699431781

Legacy

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Legacy System number:

70035

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LBS

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