Former General Wolfe Public House

Summary

Former inn, hotel and public house from the late eighteenth to the early twenty-first centuries. Converted to flats in the late C20 and early C21.

Reasons for Designation

The former General Wolfe public house, 3 and 5 Bodmin Road, St Austell, Cornwall is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* for the quality and composition of the architecture of its front to Fore Street;
* the principal building retains features including hornless sash windows with margin lights and other joinery from an early phase of the building’s history;
* the building holds a strong position within the St Austell townscape, at an important intersection between the Truro and Bodmin Roads.

Historic interest:
* for its late-C18 origins and as one of the earliest licensed premises in St Austell;
* within the C19 and early C20 commercial history of St Austell, a town of many public houses, reflecting the growth and demand of local industry at the time.

Group value:
* with other Grade II-listed buildings in the historic centre of St Austell.

History

The first known record of the General Wolfe Inn is a newspaper report in 1785 which notes the continuation of the pub by Samuel Pentecost after the death of his father Richard. The report suggests that accommodation and stabling could be found at the inn alongside the best wines and liquors. Richard Pentecost is believed to have been the inn’s first landlord in 1783, and it is thought locally that the building was originally constructed as the townhouse of the solicitor Edward Coode in 1780.

In 1814 the lease was transferred from Coode to William Harris, a brewer; John Williams Colenso of St Austell, gentleman; and Richard Dugger of Fowey, a merchant. The inn is shown on the 1839 Tithe map of St Austell, and the accompanying apportionment records the landowner as Sir Joseph Sawle Gaves-Sawle, 1st baronet (1793-1865) and the occupier of the General Wolfe Inn and stabling yards as Thomas May. The Tithe map shows the inn as two attached buildings: one on Bodmin Road to the north and the other facing towards Fore Street to the east. The 1880 Ordnance Survey (OS) Town Plan clearly marks the General Wolfe (PH) as a building turning the sharp corner of Bodmin Road towards Truro Road. A longstanding landlord from around 1873 to the early C20 was John Job. During this period the public house was the pick-up for letter carriers to Bodmin and Roche and was also an omnibus pick-up point.

An early-C20 photograph shows the General Wolfe public house as a polite, double-fronted building with sash windows with margin lights, and a moulded central doorcase. ‘General Wolfe Hotel’ is painted on the first floor between the windows. In 1911 the building’s deeds were conveyed from the 4th baronet Graves-Sawle to FJ Hext Esq and DH Shilson, a St Austell banker, and George Bramble became the licensed landlord; he may have also been a brewer as bottles survive embossed ‘Geo Bramble General Wolfe St Austell’. By the early 1920s moulded hoods on console brackets had been added above the windows, and the front elevation was ashlar rendered. A tall, narrow building to the west (possibly a tap room and brewery) and a covered yard, both of which were historically part of the neighbouring Globe Hotel, seem to have become part of the General Wolfe at this time; the covered yard was later walled in on its west side (these buildings, numbers 5b, 6 and 6a Bodmin Road, are excluded from the List entry).

The General Wolfe closed as a pub in the early 2000s, and the ground floor became a shop. The Bodmin Road range to the rear (no 5) was converted to flats in the 1990s, and the principal building was also converted into residential accommodation in around 2014 including the subdivision of the ground floor.

Details

Former inn, hotel and public house from the late C18 to the early C21. Converted to flats in the late C20 and early C21. Numbers 5b, 6 and 6a are excluded from the List entry.

MATERIALS: rubble stone construction, ashlar rendered stucco on the front elevation, with C21 slate hanging to the rear, a C21 slate roof, and red-brick stacks.

PLAN: almost square plan with a central entrance (no 3) facing south-east towards Fore Street, with an attached long rectangular range to the north on Bodmin Road (no 5).

EXTERIOR: the principal building (no 3) is two storeys with a basement and attic. The roof is pitched and has a C21 slate covering, with red-brick end stacks and C21 rooflights on the west slope. The front elevation is ashlar rendered, symmetrical, three bays wide with a central entrance and first-floor cill band. The windows have C20 moulded hoods on console brackets (probably in cement or reconstituted stone) over hornless sashes with margin lights. The central doorway has a moulded timber hood, glazed over-light and C20 double doors with mouldings. To its left is an external flight of stone steps with a C20 steel handrail to street and basement level, where there are a door and window.

The north elevation is of rubble stone with granite quoins. On the ground floor to the right are a blocked doorway and window with red-brick flat arches, above which is a window in a red-brick surround containing a hornless sash window. The elevation continues along Bodmin Road with a lower two-storey range (no 5) constructed of rubble stone brought to courses. It contains five window openings (one blocked, the others with uPVC casements) and a blocked doorway to the left. The range has a shallow pitched tiled roof with terracotta ridge tiles. Its south elevation is of mid-C20 concrete block. The rear elevation of no 3 is rendered; on the left is a window with hornless sash and a tall narrow sash window (lighting the stair), truncated in 2010. The rest of this elevation is largely obscured by single-storey C20 infill between no 5 and no 5b (which is excluded from the List entry). Access to the first floor of no 3 is currently (2025) only from the flat roof above the infill via a C20 metal fire escape (excluded from the List entry). To the west, numbers 5b, 6 and 6a, once part of the Globe Hotel, are excluded from the List entry.

INTERIOR: the principal staircase is located in the centre-rear of the building; stone stairs lead to the cellar and are currently blocked off at this level, and the stairs from the first floor are blocked off at ground floor level. The ground floor was subdivided in 2014 with modern stud partitions and doors; in the south-east room is a mid-C19 timber fire-surround. The first floor (accessed from the flat roof to the rear) retains historic partitions and mid-C19 features to the east: the windows are set within panelled reveals with wide architraves, a panelled door survives in the south-east room, and the north-east room has a moulded plaster cornice and linear mouldings to the ceiling. Wide door architraves and deep skirting boards also survive. At the bottom of the stairs to the attic is a C20 plank and brace door; the staircase has a mid-C19 or earlier stick baluster with simple turned newel posts. Within the attic are three mid-C19 doors; two have been reset within later architraves, although historic examples also survive.

The interior of number 5 retains no features of interest.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

478840

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Bunn, C, The Book of St Austell: the story of a china clay town, (1978), 75
Beacham, P, Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Cornwall, (2014), 503

Websites
Britain from Above, accessed 19/11/2025 from https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en
Cornish Memory, accessed 19/11/2025 from https://www.cornishmemory.com/
Heritage Gateway: Cornwall & Scilly Historic Environment Record, accessed 19/11/2025 from https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MCO34334&resourceID=1020

Other
1839 Tithe map and apportionment of St Austell
Ordnance Survey, Cornwall (1880) (1:500 Town Plan)
Unknown source – 1785 newspaper clipping
Lease, house called 'The General Wolfe', St Austell 1814 (Kresen Kernow CF/1/213)
Conveyance, General Wolfe Inn 1911 (Kresen Kernow PR/1/29)

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.