Bonallack Barton Cottages

Bonallack Barton Cottages Nos 1 and 2

This building is a wing of a larger medieval house, converted into a pair of attached cottages. It probably originated as a 16th-century parlour wing of an earlier medieval house, which was then converted into a pair of cottages and extended in the late 19th century.

The building is constructed of shale rubble with granite dressings. The roof is grouted scantle slate with gable ends and red clay ridge tiles, with a lower scantle slate roof to a single-storey wing at the right-hand end. There are two granite ashlar axial ridge stacks with moulded cornices and weathered caps, and a red brick shaft to the right-hand end stack.

The existing building comprises a long single-depth two-storey range of five rooms with a small single-storey unheated one-room wing set back at the right-hand end. This range is the result of a late 19th-century conversion to a pair of cottages. The large parlour at the left-hand end has an axial stack at its right-hand end and a large eight-light window at the front. The heated chamber above has a garderobe adjacent to the stack. A smaller room to the right is heated from a gable-end (now axial) stack with direct entry from a front doorway and a chamber above. The late 19th-century conversion involved inserting partitions into the parlour and right-hand room, adding a two-storey one-room extension at the right-hand end with a gable-end stack, and adding a small single-storey unheated wing set back at the extreme right-hand end.

Historical records indicate that Bonallack was first licensed in 1374. In 1820, G.S. Gilbert described the ruins as "extremely picturesque", noting that the great hall had recently contained considerable portions of stained glass, with a chapel and other detached buildings also in ruinous condition. The surviving range appears to be only a wing of what was once a substantial house with a great hall and chapel. None of the detached buildings survives.

The exterior presents a two-storey asymmetrical south-east front with five windows. The four windows to the left belong to the original wing. The ground-floor left-hand window is a very long eight-light granite mullion window with flat chamfers and a hoodmould, though one mullion has been removed and a plank door inserted. The first floor above has two smaller three-light mullion windows. To the right of centre is a double-chamfered four-centre arch granite doorway with water-leaf type stops, now blocked, with a late 19th-century two-light casement to its right with glazing bars and a small single-light casement above. On the first floor to the right is a double-chamfered granite centred arch doorway, partly blocked as a fixed-light window with glazing bars. The one-window range to the right has late 19th-century two-light casements on each floor with glazing bars, granite lintels and slate sills, and a doorway to the left with a granite lintel and 20th-century plank door. Set back to the right, the single-storey one-window wing has a small sash. The rear elevation is largely blank except for two 20th-century single-light casements and two late 19th-century sashes. The garderobe window on the first floor to the right of centre is blocked. At the extreme right-hand end, a 20th-century concrete block outshut conceals a 19th-century doorway with a 19th-century four-panel door. A straight masonry joint in the left-hand (south-west) gable-end wall suggests a blocked doorway.

The interior of the large parlour at the left end features a 19th-century partition forming a kitchen at the left-hand end, with a 19th-century straight staircase against the partition with stick balusters and turned newel. There is a large granite fireplace at the right-hand end with a moulded three-centred arch and moulded stops. Large closely-spaced chamfered ceiling cross-beams with hollow step stops and a very long moulded lintel to the front window feature alternating cavetto and ovolo mouldings. The chamber above the parlour has a moulded granite basket-arch fireplace with moulded stops and a Victorian cast-iron grate. A small closet to the left of the fireplace was probably the original garderobe, with a wooden doorframe with fern-leaf spandrels and a small blocked window slit. The smaller room to the right is also partitioned and divided between the two cottages. At its right end is an original granite fireplace with a deep chamfered Tudor arch, the stops of which are concealed.

The roof space was inaccessible during survey, and the feet of the principals were not visible in the first-floor rooms, suggesting the roof structure may have been replaced in the 19th century.

Bonallack was the seat of the Bonallack family until the 12th century, when it passed by marriage to the Gerveys family, who held it until 1671 when it passed again by marriage to the Grylls. Around 1860, Colonel S.M. Gryll established his family seat at Lewarne, St Neat, and built a large house at Bonallack Barton for his tenant James Tyacke. By that time, the old medieval house had been reduced to farm-workers cottages.