Description

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

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26596392

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

• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings