York Cottage, Honeysuckle Cottage, York House And Chapel Cottage

York Cottage, Honeysuckle Cottage, York House and Chapel Cottage

A house, now divided into four separate dwellings. Built in the late 15th or 16th century, extended probably in the 17th century, and remodelled around the early 19th century and again around the mid-19th century. The structure is built of granite rubble with granite dressings, mostly rendered in stucco on the street-facing north side. The roof is covered in scantle slate with projecting eaves at the front, and brick chimneys rise over the gable end on the right and over a cross wall towards the left.

The building now forms a long L-shaped range, taller on the left and middle sections. It comprises a central two-room house, now subdivided, with similar single-room plan houses at either end. The left-hand house extends two rooms deep, and the middle house has a 17th-century wing set at right angles behind its left-hand room. The right-hand house is lower and follows a two-room plan; its left room was originally the hall of the earliest house, and the right room has functioned as a shop. The group originally appears to have been a single house with a three-room plan and through passage, later extended with a parlour or service wing in the 17th century. The present stucco front was created to conceal evidence of these alterations and to present a unified street frontage.

At the rear of the right-hand section of what is now York House is a late 15th or 16th-century four-light window, probably originally the hall window. Other mullioned windows existed in the 17th-century wing until July 1986, when they were removed and buried in the back yard.

The building stands two storeys tall with an overall seven-window range in a 1:3:1:2 bay arrangement. The first five bays are taller. The central three-window house has pilasters adjoining the flanking single-window houses, stucco window surrounds, and a stucco modillioned eaves cornice. The three ground-floor windows have keystones; the three first-floor windows have bracket-shaped headed lintels. The ground-floor right-hand window is set slightly left of its corresponding first-floor window to provide space for a doorway at the far right. The ground-floor windows are slightly wider than those above. A doorway at the far left appears to be a 20th-century insertion that has cut away part of the pilaster. The flanking sections were probably originally similarly detailed but are now painted rubble on the left and plain render on the right. A 12-pane hornless sash window at the first floor far left is presumably contemporary with the overall remodelling of the group. The remaining windows are later four-paned horned sashes. At the far right, the lower house features a former shop front with a tripartite sash window to the right.

The rear elevation retains some original late medieval and 17th-century walling, though much has been remodelled. The most notable feature is a late medieval four-light granite mullioned window with a king mullion.

The interior of the 17th-century wing contains some original chamfered oak ceiling beams; the remainder of the interior was not inspected. At roadside level, a shallow walk and a chamfered granite round-coped retaining wall surmounted by iron railings front the property. The stanchions have square cushion bases and ball finials, with two round-section rails socketed into square collars. Older 19th-century railings are present at the left-hand return. The front of this group displays little evidence of its considerable age and former importance, clearly demonstrating how, like many other Cornish buildings, it has been substantially remodelled over time.