Description

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

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17534438

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

• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5