Castlewich Including Adjoining Store On East And Garden Walls To Front

Castlewich is a house with an adjoining store and garden walls located near Callington. The main house dates from the late 16th century and was probably built for the Crabbe family. It has been substantially extended and altered over the following centuries.

The original house was extended with a two-storey porch in the 17th century. The right-hand wing was rebuilt in the early 18th century and partly remodelled in the 19th century. A rear extension was added in the early 19th century, creating an L-shaped plan. An early staircase projection stood to the south east of a lateral stack on the rear but was removed in the 20th century.

The house is constructed of rubblestone with large granite quoins on the right-hand hipped end. Slate hangs to the rear. A granite string courses above the ground floor, continuing across the front of the left-hand wing and around the two-storey porch. The roof is of asbestos slate with a gable end to the left and a cement-washed scantle slate roof hipped on the right. The porch has a hipped slate roof. There are brick and stone stacks: a brick stack in the right-hand hipped end, a stone stack with brick shaft in the ridge to the right of the porch, a slate-hung stack and large stone stack to the rear in the later extension, and remains of a lateral stone stack with large granite quoins to the rear of the left-hand wing, though the shaft has been removed.

The original plan probably consisted of three rooms and a cross passage with the hall on the left. The north front is two storeys with four windows arranged regularly. The ground floor on the left has a wide opening with a cut stone flat arch and granite cill, containing a 19th-century six-pane sash. To the right, in the porch, is a chamfered flat painted arch, probably of the early 17th century and restored in the 19th century, with chamfered jambs and run-out stops. A circa 18th-century plank door with strap hinges hangs here. To the right is a late 19th or 20th-century bay window with a four-pane sash beneath a cut stone flat arch. Above on the left is a four-pane sash in a partly blocked opening with a wide timber lintel. The porch has a four-pane sash, and to the right are two further four-pane sashes.

Internally, the ground floor contains a wide through passage, blocked to the rear by later extensions. The room on the left, originally the hall and later used as a dairy, has a plastered ceiling. A fireplace to the rear lateral stack has been blocked. Granite steps lead up to a door opening to the through passage between the house and the adjoining store on the left-hand gable end. Granite salt troughs flank the steps on the interior. The large room to the right of the through passage has an earlier partly blocked fireplace backing onto the passage, with a chamfered granite lintel, probably reused, to the rear in the later extension. A circa 17th-century doorcase leads from the two-storey porch on the first floor.

The roof timbers of the left-hand, earlier wing have been renewed. To the rear of the porch, over the cross passage, are three heavy principals, chamfered with cambered, side-pegged collars. The ridge has been renewed. Evidence of trenched purlins survives on the porch side. The porch and right-hand wing have slightly later timbers and a circa late 18th-century collar rafter roof of six bays. The roof timbers to the rear extensions were not inspected.

Attached to the left-hand gable end is a one-storey store with loft, dating from circa the mid-18th century. It is constructed of rendered rubblestone with small timber framing and a rag slate roof. The roof is gabled on the ridge and hipped on the left, continued in catslide to the rear. A large opening faces the front, with through passages on the right leading through to the rear of the house. A mason's mitre appears on a reused lintel to the door on the rear of the store.

A rubblestone wall encloses the garden in front of the house, with a mounting block on the left.