Clowance House

Details

SW 63 SW CROWAN CLOWANCE

4/121 Clowance House - 10.7.57 GV II

Country house now used as the administrative and leisure centre of a holiday village. Circa 1843 rebuilding incoporating some older probably C18 parts. Built for the St Aubyn family. Granite ashlar front and the front sections of the sides, otherwise granite rubble with granite dressings. Hipped dry Delabole slate roofs behind parapets over the reception rooms, at right angles to to the fronts, valleys between. Granite ashlar chimneys over the cross wall valleys and over the rear walls. The service ranges have gable ends and brick chimneys. Plan : overall irregular L-shape, 3 prinicipal rooms at the front with stair hall behind the middle room, another reception room behind the left hand room projecting slightly left of left end; behind the reception rooms are passages or small service rooms behind the left hand block is the remains of a probably C18 range, remodelled in the C19. At the rear of this range is a cross wing and towards the rear at right angles to the right hand side is a service wing. Classical style. 2 storeys. Symmetrical 2:3:2 bay south-east entrance front, the middle 3 bays set back slightly and with a prostyle tetrastyle Tuscan porte-cochere projecting from the ground floor. Plinth, moulded architraves to the openings, mid-floor string, parapet cornice with blocking course over and ball finials over the corners. Central doorway with top-glazed double doors and overlight. Sashes with plate glass. The right hand return wall is similarly detailed: regular 2 window front with 1st floor left hand window blind. Set back on the right is a narrow 3-storey 1-bay ashlar front, possibly originally servants quarters. Left hand return facing south west is the garden front; overall 9 window irregular garden front with regular disposition of windows in each bay. The left and middle 4 bays are probably C18 but remodelled in the later C19. At the far left is an open pediment cross wing gable with brick cornice: basement mid-floor tripartite sash bay window with triangular pediment and paired sashes in the gable. The next (from left) 4 bays are set back slightly. Brick modillion cornice, wider central 3 light canted ground floor bay window and ground floor right hand window all inserted in the C19. The other openings are original; all with hornless C19 sashes with glazing bars except where later doorway with double doors breaks through the left hand light of the bay window. Over the ground floor left and right windows are coats of arms, both with roll moulded border: the left hand one with a crossed shield and the right hand one with a crested helmet surmounted by a nest and chough. Reading the arabic numerals on both gives the date 1813. The taller bays on the right are circa 1840's similarly detailed to the main front except that there is a canted 3 light bay window to the ground floor of each bay and 2 windows, over; the 2 on the far right are blind. The left hand C19 bay slightly projects and the right hand one is set back. (An old engraving [NMR] shows the C18 parts of this side of the house before remodelling and before the C19 additions on the right. The C18 or earlier house extended much farther to the left and seems to have been a range of principal 1st floor rooms over a basement; with 2 projecting oriels carried on columns one of which was in the position of the tripartite window with pediment, far left). Interior of the house has much of its C19 plasterwork and joinery, though only partly inspected at the time of the survey. Adjoining at the rear of the house is a former rear wall of the old house now a garden wall, with one of the lateral fireplaces remodelled as a grotto. Clowance House suffered 2 serious fires, in 1837 and 1843 and was largely rebuilt and remodelled following the 2nd fire. Formerly the home of the St Aubyn's (since circa 1380 when Geoffrey St Aubyn married Elizabeth Kemyell), granted arms in 1545 and many distinguished members of the family followed including John St Aubyn (1610-1684), a leading Parliamentarian, who later purchased St Michael's Mount from Francis Basset of Tehidy; his son, another John, was given a baronetcy in 1671; the third Sir John St Aubyn became an MP for Cornwall and 6 of the St Aubyns have held the position of Sheriff of Cornwall. The St Aubyn line continues as Molesworth-St Aubyn, but ceased ownership of Clowance since 1923. Sources : Pat Robins, Cornish Life. Clowance is an interesting example classical survival with some Victorian features.

Listing NGR: SW6347734962

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

65829

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Robins, P, Cornish Life, ()

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