St Pirans And Surrounding Garden Walls

St Pirans and Surrounding Garden Walls

A house with surrounding garden wall, dating to the late 16th century, probably with earlier origins. The building is constructed of slate stone rubble with rag slate roofs featuring gable ends and a considerable number of surviving early crested ridge tiles. The chimneys comprise stone rubble and brick end stacks, with a projecting stone rubble rear lateral hall stack featuring a cloam oven projection.

The original plan is uncertain and the house probably has earlier origins, although evidence is limited as the roof structure to the main range was likely replaced in the mid to late 17th century. The building follows a three-room and through-passage plan. The lower end on the left is heated by an end stack, the hall is heated by a rear lateral stack with cloam oven projection and has a hall bay adjoining on the higher right-hand side of the fireplace on the rear, and the inner room to the right is heated by an end stack. The stone rubble cross walls between the hall and inner room and on the lower side of the hall continue up to the apex. A stone rubble winder stair on the rear wall towards the lower side of the hall is lit by an early narrow splayed lancet window and probably originally gave access to the chamber above the lower end. Around the mid-17th century, a two-storey unheated wing of single-room plan was added to the rear of the passage, probably reusing a circa 16th century truss in the roof structure. Around the mid-19th century, the front wall and lower gable end of the lower room on the left were rebuilt and two two-storey service wings, each of single-room plan, were added on the front of the inner room and higher side of the hall.

The exterior is two storeys. The front elevation is a long, six-window asymmetrical façade with the entrance to the left of centre and a double gable end of 19th-century extensions on the right. A circa 19th-century stone rubble lean-to porch with a 19th-century four-pane sash is positioned to the left. To the right is a two-light hollow chamfered mullion window, followed by a circa 20th-century lean-to porch and 19th and 20th-century windows in the 19th-century extensions beyond. The first floor features a four-pane sash to the left and two two-light mullion windows in gabled half dormers above and to the left of the entrance, with a two-light mullion window to the right. A circa late 19th or early 20th-century twelve-pane sash and a 19th-century horizontal sliding sash occupy the gable ends of the 19th-century extensions to the right.

The rear elevation is especially unspoilt. It features a projecting lateral hall stack near the centre, a two-storey gabled hall bay adjoining to the left, and a gabled wing to the rear of the passage on the right. The ground floor has a three-light mullion window lighting the inner room on the left and a hall bay to the left of centre with two-light mullion windows in gabled half dormers above. A narrow chamfered lancet window, deeply splayed on the interior, lights the winder stair to the right of the projecting hall stack. The unheated wing has a 20th-century door on the ground floor; the lintel comprises a piece of circa 15th-century carved oak rescued from the roof of Minster Church after the 19th-century restoration by J. P. St. Aubyn. A two-light mullion window serves the first floor.

The interior preserves an intact through passage with a circa late 16th or 17th-century rear door, studded with original strap hinges ornamented with fleur-de-lys. The timber frame is chamfered with eroded stops. The left-hand, lower end has been remodelled in the 19th century. The hall fireplace projects into the room with a lintel featuring straight-cut stops. The hall bay adjoining has chamfered beams with ogee-moulded stops, and the cill of the window is reputed to have come from Minster Church. A small deep cupboard in the higher side wall of the hall bay possibly opens to the exterior. Circa 17th-century doors with scratch-moulded frames and butterfly hinges are present. The inner room has chamfered ceiling beams. In the chamber above the hall is a stone shelf, which may be associated with a remodelled fireplace although traditionally attributed as a monk's penance bed.

The roof structure of the main range dates to circa the late 17th century. The principals are either deeply halved, lap-jointed and pegged at the apices or feature morticed apices with collars lap-jointed and pegged onto the face of the principals. Two tiers of trenched purlins are present. The carpenter's marks do not appear to correlate with the structure and indicate that the trusses have been altered or reused. The rear wing, also circa 17th century, contains one probably reused truss which originally had a morticed collar, now replaced with a lap-jointed and pegged collar.

The stone rubble garden walls surrounding the house feature battlemented parapets with slate strings. On the north wall is a reused timber lintel, possibly from Minster Church, with a stone cross above. Several pieces of Medieval tracery have been reset in outbuildings within the walls, and a slate settle is positioned on the south side of the garden.