Gear And Kerrow Farmhouse

Gear and Kerrow Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from the early 18th century. It is constructed from roughly-faced coursed killas with dressed granite quoins and a lintel course. The roof is steep and made of Delabole slate, laid in diminishing courses, with brick chimneys at the gable ends and cast-iron ogee-section gutters. The building has a double depth plan featuring two equal-sized parlours at the front, which flank a wide central entrance hall that leads to a stair hall situated between the kitchen on the left and the pantry on the right. There is a 19th-century stable wing attached on the left side.

The exterior is two stories high with a symmetrical five-window front facing southeast, featuring a wide central doorway. The lintels above the ground floor openings are incised to resemble voussoirs, and there is a coved eaved cornice. The original door is a six-panel design, with some panels glazed in the 20th century, and the windows are 18-pane hornless sashes with wide glazing bars and much original crown glass, although there are 20th-century windows at the rear.

Inside, much of the original carpentry and joinery remains intact, including three-panel doors with fielded panels, bowtell-moulded beams in the rear rooms, a dog-leg stair with bobbin-turned balusters, window shutters, and three moulded ceiling cornices in both parlours. There is an archway between the entrance hall and the stair hall, and in the right-hand parlour, there is fielded dado panelling, two semi-circular niches, and two concentric ovals with torus mouldings on the ceiling. The roof structure has not been inspected but is believed to be original.

Gear and Kerrow Farmhouse is situated within a Romano-British camp and may occupy a site that has been continuously inhabited since that time. This farmhouse is notably complete for its period, particularly the front with its original door and windows. It can be compared to Tredrea, also located in St Erth parish.