Description

ST ERVAN ST ERVAN
SW 87 SE
3/187 St Ervan House

GV II

Rectory, now a private house and restaurant. Built in 1853; the gift of and held by
Rev. Henry N. Barton, rector. Slate rubble. Delabole rag slate roof with gable ends
and red clay ridge-tiles. Large gable end stacks with dripcourses and tapered caps.
Designed in a domestic revival or survival style combining Georgian and Gothic
elements but with a plan typical of the period.
Plan: 2 parallel ranges separated by the entrance hall with an entrance porch at the
right end in the angle with the rear range which projects to the right. The 2
principal rooms are in the front range facing south onto the garden. The back range
contains the study at the right end next to the entrance and the stairwell to its
left. There is a rear service wing at right angles to the left containing the
kitchen and an unheated single storey wing at the end of the service wing. In the
late C20 a single storey wing was added to the left end of the front range.
Exterior: 2 storeys attic. Symmetrical south garden front of 2:1:2 windows on the
first floor and 2:2 windows on the ground floor; all with cambered slate arches,
slate sills and C19 4-pane sashes. Three C19 gabled dormers in the roof, each with a
pair of 4-pane sashes, shaped slates in the slate-hung gables and slate-hung cheeks.
The right hand (east) elevation has the gable ends of the 2 parallel ranges, the rear
right hand range projects and there is a single storey gabled porch in the angle with
a pointed arch doorway, integral weathered buttress to its left and a 2-centred arch
inner doorway with a fanlight and C19 panelled door. In the gable end of the
projecting range to the right a 4-pane sash on each floor and lancet in the gable
above. The rear elevation of this back range has a large stair sash in a cambered
arch opening and a lateral stack above. The rear elevation has a gable-ended service
wing to the right and a single storey hipped roof wing at the end of the main wing.
The west side has a large C19 triparite sash to the kitchen and a 2-light sash above,
both with cambered arches and slate sills.
Attached to the left hand (west) end of the front range there is a single storey
addition with rendered walls and a low pitched asbestos slate roof.
Interior was not accessible at the time of the survey but probably retains its C19
features such as the staircase, chimney-pieces and joinery.
Pitch-pine doors were mentioned in John Betjeman's blank verse autobiography
'Summound by Bells' 1960, which describes the rectory at St Ervan:- (or -)
"The Rectory was large and uncarpeted.
Books and oil-lamps and papers were about;
The study's pale green walls were mapped with damp;
The pitch-pine doors and window frames were cracked;
Loose noisy tiles along the passages
Led to a waste of barely furnished rooms;
Clearly the Rector lived here all alone.
He talked of poetry and Cornish saints;
He kept an apiary and a cow;"
The bell at the Church of St Hermes qv, St Ervan, was also mentioned in 'Summoned by
Bells'.
The rectory was probably designed by the architect who designed the school (The
School House qv) at St Ervan which was built in 1856.
Sources: Kelly's Directory 1883. Betjeman, John, 'Summoned by Bells'. 1960

Listing NGR: SW8914870200

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26507524

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)