Saveock Manor Farmhouse

Farmhouse, dating from around the middle of the 18th century with elements of an earlier house incorporated. The walls are painted rubble, with incised stucco simulating ashlar on the front. The roof is hipped, with a half-hipped rear wing (to the east) and an outshut in the angle. Sections of original scantle slate remain on the east, west, and south hip, but the front has been replaced with corrugated asbestos and the rear with asbestos slate. Brick chimneys are located on the side walls and to the rear of the wing. The house follows a double-depth, central stair plan, with two rooms wide, plus a single-storey lean-to to the west and incorporating part of the earlier house to the east. A hip-roofed porch is located to the rear entrance, and granite steps lead to the front entrance, where a base of the original Tuscan porch (single column) remains.

The north front is symmetrical, with five windows. All windows are original 12-pane hornless sashes, featuring wide glazing bars and internal ovolo mouldings and mostly original crown glass. There is a granite ashlar plinth above rubble footings. Granite sills are also present. Five granite steps of diminishing width lead to a central round-headed doorway with its original wide door consisting of three vertical top panels over a wide bottom panel, and a plain fanlight. Stucco repairs around the doorway reveal the extent of the removed Tuscan distyle porch. The east wall shows evidence of the earlier house, with three tall openings on each floor, two of which are blocked, except for the left-hand windows. The first-floor left-hand window is an 8-pane sash from the middle of the 18th century in a reduced width opening. A 20th-century window is below this, in a reduced opening with a cambered brick arch, possibly originally a central doorway of the 5-window front. Blocked openings are slate-hung, except for the ground floor right.

The interior survives virtually intact from around the middle of the 18th century. Original 6-panel and 2-panel doors remain, with ogee or ovolo-moulded architraves, and window shutters to the front rooms. The open-string stair has a trailing rose detail, turned column balusters and a turned, bulbous newel with a ball finial, dating from around the late 19th century, a ramped oak handrail and a moulded dado rail. Moulded plaster ceiling cornices are found in the front rooms, with modillions to the right-hand (west) room and dentils to the vestibule. Round-headed archways lead to the kitchen and a further round-headed arch from the first-floor galleried landing. There is fine, robust arabesque decoration to the tympanum of the arch leading to the central room. A small dressing room with a moulded plaster ceiling cornice is located to the rear of the west chamber. An original eared fireplace surround remains in the chamber above the kitchen. The pine roof structures date from the middle of the 18th century and are fastened with pegs and some nails. The roof space over the kitchen wing includes a plastered room, presumably for grain storage, and is linked by a small doorway to the main roof space, which also shows evidence of being plastered. According to local accounts, King Charles took refuge here after the Battle of Tresillian. This is an unusually complete mid-18th century house with a high-quality interior and a rare survival of mid-18th century window openings.