Croan

Croan is a country house built around 1696, probably for Edward Hoblyn who died in 1704, though it likely has earlier origins. The house was formerly a seat of the Roscarrock family, who are recorded in the 1664 hearth tax returns with 11 hearths, suggesting substantial earlier construction may underlie the present building.

The house is built of local slatestone rubble with an ashlar slatestone front and moulded slate plinth. The roof is slate with hipped ends and a gable to the rear left (north west) wing. Stone rubble axial, rear lateral and end chimney stacks are present.

The plan is broadly L-shaped, with a front south range of three rooms and a rear left-hand north west wing of two rooms and a passage. The three front rooms are heated by fireplaces on their rear walls. The right and large central entrance hall are heated by rear lateral stacks later incorporated as axial stacks, while the left-hand room has an axial stack. The late 17th-century stair is housed in a projection to the rear right of the central entrance hall and may have been partly reset. The rear wing comprises a two-room plan with the main entrance leading into a passage directly behind the front range, linking with the stair. Around the early 20th century, the stair hall was partly remodelled to add a corridor on the ground and first floors along the east wall of the rear north west wing to improve circulation. In the 19th century, a single-room wing was added to the rear of the front right-hand room, adjoining the stair projection. Possibly in the late 19th or early 20th century, a service room (now used as a cottage) was added on the west side of the rear left-hand north west wing.

A datestone of 1696 appears on a chimneypiece in a bedroom in the rear wing, and much of the bolection moulded panelling within the house appears to be contemporary. An estate map of Croan, signed by George Withiell of Plymouth, dated 1702, illustrates the south front with a symmetrical seven-window elevation as existing, but shows mullion and transom windows with a central pediment. It is possible that the mullion and transom windows were never installed, being superseded by the more fashionable 12-pane sashes with heavy glazing bars as now present. Though the central bay is set slightly forward, there is little evidence to indicate whether the pediment existed; the roof structure has been largely replaced in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The exterior is of two storeys and attic. The symmetrical seven-window south front features complete early 18th-century 12-pane sashes with heavy glazing bars and dressed stone flat arches. An ashlar freestone doorcase with pulvinated frieze in cornice and console brackets contains a partly glazed door appearing to be late 17th or early 18th century, or made up of reused parts including heavy glazing bars and three raised and fielded panels. The central three bays are set slightly forward. A deep moulded eaves cornice on brackets runs across the front.

The right-hand east side elevation displays a large painted coat of arms depicting the Tremayne arms quartered with Carew. The left-hand west elevation comprises an asymmetrical four-window front with the main entrance to the right of centre. To the left stands a 19th-century tripartite sash within a chamfered granite 4-centred arch with diagonal stops, possibly reset but of late 16th or early 17th-century origin, now within the 19th or early 20th-century service wing currently used as a cottage. A tripartite sash to the right has a circa 20th-century partly glazed door with bracketed hood. Four 12-pane sashes appear on the first floor, with three hipped full dormers to the attic. A deep moulded eaves cornice on brackets runs along this elevation. The rear north elevation features a stair projection lit by a late 17th-century round-headed stair window with heavy glazing bars.

The interior is complete and of high quality. The main south front range contains complete bolection moulded panelling in the left-hand room, with late 17th-century moulded cornice and 8-panel doors with raised and fielded panels. The central room has moulded late 17th-century cornice and a fine bolection moulded chimneypiece with central raised panel. 17th-century Delft tiles are reset in the fireplace opening. The right-hand room on the east has complete bolection moulded panelling with late 17th-century moulded cornice which breaks forward in the centre of all four walls and at the corners. The chimneypiece has been altered in the 19th and 20th centuries and has reset 17th-century Delft tiles in the fireplace reveals. A simple small plaster motif appears in the centre of the ceiling, possibly 18th century, with four heart-shaped patterns. The room to the rear of the left-hand room in the rear wing has two large boxed ceiling beams.

The fine late 17th-century stair has possibly been partly reset. It is an open-well stair with a closed string, deep moulded rail and alternating barley-sugar twist and turned vase-shaped balusters. Above the stair is a square ceiling panel with a trompe l'oeil painting of circa 17th-century Italian type, showing figures leaning over a square balcony with blue sky above. An early 20th-century balustrade has been added to the first floor in the corridor extension. Complete 18th-century 2-panel doors appear in the front range. The front right room retains complete original shutters and raised and fielded panelling. The central room has been partly divided with later partitions introduced; the raised and fielded panelling survives in part with the bolection moulded chimneypiece and a painted panel above dated 1903. The top left-hand room retains the original bolection moulded chimneypiece with pilasters flanking the central panel above. Directly to the rear (north) of this room is a further bedroom with late 17th-century moulded cornice and chimneypiece, with a datestone of 1696 in the capitals of the pilasters above. The central panel is painted with a still-life in oil.

The roof structure above the front range has been largely replaced in the 19th and 20th centuries. The earlier principals appear to have been halved, lap-jointed and pegged at the apices, chamfered probably below the collars, and had trenched purlins. In the rear left-hand wing, the principals appear to have been partly halved, lapped and pegged at the apices, though full inspection of this part was not accessible.

Croan passed from the Crowan family to the Roscarrocks and then to Edward Hoblyn.