Trewan Hall With Attached Garden Walls

Trewan Hall is a substantial country house with attached garden walls, originating in the 15th century and subsequently much altered. The house underwent major enlargement in 1635, when a fireplace bearing that date was installed. Further alterations were made in the 18th century, with significant restoration and alteration around 1870 by the architect William White. Some 20th-century alterations have also been made.

The house is built of elvan stone rubble with granite dressings. The roofs are of slate with lead rolls to the ridge and gable ends. Granite chimney stacks with shaped tops and cornices are positioned axially and as a rear lateral stack.

Plan and Layout

The original plan of the house is unclear. The overall layout is U-shaped, with a central double-depth range containing a through passage. The hall lies to the rear right, heated by a lateral stack with the fireplace on the inner wall. The stair hall occupies the front left position. A wing extends from the front right, apparently partly rebuilt in the 18th century, terminating in an early 17th-century gatehouse with a carriage entrance running from right to left. A symmetrical wing attached to the front left is probably a 19th-century rebuilding. A further range attached to the rear left forms a cross wing. Garden walls are attached to the rear, enclosing a roughly rectangular kitchen garden.

Exterior

The front elevation is asymmetrical and of two storeys with an embattled parapet. The gable ends of both left and right wings have stepped shaped gables, embattled with obelisk finials, moulded granite coping, and granite quoins.

The central range comprises five bays. A four-centred arched doorway with hood mould and 20th-century door opens into the passage. To the right are two bays with four-centred arched windows with hood moulds at ground floor; the first floor has two two-light windows with cusped lights and square hood moulds. Above the door is a similar single light. To the left is a three-light 19th-century Perpendicular window with hood mould, lighting the stair. At the end left is a two-light cusped window at both ground and first floors.

The wing to the left is two storeys. Its inner side has a four-light window with two transoms and cusped toplights with hood mould to the left, and a four-centred arched doorway with hood mould and 20th-century door to the right. At first floor is a two-light window with cusped lights and hood mould. The gable end features a four-light window with transom tracery, two-centred arch and hood mould, with a single cusped light at the apex. Set back to the left is one bay with a two-light cusped window with hood mould at ground and first floors, and an embattled parapet.

The wing to the right has a front gable end with a two-light cusped window at ground floor, a three-light Perpendicular window at first floor, and a single cusped light to the attic. The inner side of this wing has a carriage entrance at the end with a four-centred hollow-chamfered arch, recessed spandrels with carved flowers, and a square hood mould with label stops. At first floor left is a two-light window with cusped lights, and to the right a two-light cusped window with square hood mould.

The outer side of the wing is treated as a gatehouse, built in granite ashlar, probably dating from 1635. The gatehouse stands on a moulded plinth, with a four-centred arched double doorway featuring roll-mouldings and recessed spandrels with carved leaves. An Ionic column to right and left supports a moulded string course with three diamond dies. At first floor is a cill string and a four-light window with hollow-chamfered mullions and three columns with convex caps. Above is a frieze with carved dies and a cornice. The attic storey is contained within a shaped gable with three columns of a primitive Ionic order and two blind round-arched lights, with carved frieze and cornice above. The gable has obelisk finials set on four balls—three over the centre of the gable, two of which have carved strapwork.

The four bays to the right of the gatehouse are two storeys and were probably substantially rebuilt around the 18th century. The ground floor has four four-centred arched windows with hood moulds; the first floor has four two-light windows with cusped lights and square hood moulds. There is a gable end stack to the right; the axial stack to the gatehouse is in granite with carved panels to the shaft.

The left side of the left wing has two two-light chamfered granite windows at ground and first floors. A short section of rubble wall is attached to the left, with granite merlons and a four-centred arched doorway, screening the front of the house from the yard at the left side.

At the left side are two three-light chamfered granite windows at ground floor and a central pointed arched doorway with fanlight and 20th-century door, set in a late 19th-century brick gabled porch. Three two-light chamfered granite windows are at first floor. A range stepped forward to the left is of two storeys with gable ends; the front gable end has a single window at ground and first floors. The left side has three windows at ground floor and two at first floor, built into the bank at the rear, with a door at upper level to the left. A granite ashlar gable end stack with cornice is present.

At the rear, there are gable ends to right and left. The gable end to the left has a granite ashlar stack with cornice. A two-span roof covers the central range, with a rubble stack with cornice in the valley, which is the rear lateral stack for the hall. The doorway to the passage has a four-centred arch with hood mould. Two bays to the right have two two-light chamfered granite windows with hood moulds at ground and first floors, and a similar three-light window above the door. The gable end to the right has a similar two-light window at first floor and a single light at ground floor. To the left of the door are two four-centred arched Perpendicular style windows with hood moulds, dating from the 19th century and lighting the hall.

The wing to the right has two two-light chamfered granite windows with hood moulds at ground and first floors, with a pointed arched doorway to the left. Attached to this wing is a short section of rubble wall with a pointed arched doorway, connecting the house to the kitchen garden walls.

Garden Walls

The front wall of the kitchen garden is built of elvan stone rubble with slate coping and granite merlons, standing about two and a half metres high and extending approximately 60 metres in length. There is a central gateway opposite the rear doorway to the house, with a raised surround and embattled parapet raised over the doorway. The walls enclose the kitchen garden to the rear, constructed in rubble and cob with slate coping; the walls do not extend fully around the garden, with sections missing at the right side. The garden is about 30 metres deep. At the far right end, the wall is raised over a four-centred arched carriage entry with embattled parapet carried over.

Interior

The front door opens into an entrance hall that appears to have been reconstructed on the line of the through passage in the late 19th century. To the rear is a stone vault with chamfered granite ribs and stone bosses with masks, similar to the vestibule vault in Bank House. A stone screen with three pointed arches leads to the hall to the rear right.

The hall is open to the roof, which is of four bays and dates from the 19th century, with arched braces. On the inner wall is a granite fireplace with segmental arch and roll-mouldings and vestigial ogee, dated 1635. There is 19th-century dado panelling. To the front left of the entrance is the stair hall, containing an open-well stair with turned balusters and chamfered newels, dating from the 19th century.

Historical and Architectural Significance

The 19th-century remodelling of Trewan Hall maintains the character of a 17th-century house, and the wing to the left, which completes the U-plan, creates a symmetrical front. The gatehouse is of particular interest, built in a transitional style between the Gothic and the classical; it makes an interesting comparison with the gatehouse at Lanhydrock House, which is a close contemporary. The house formerly extended further to the left, with a room that was reported in the early 19th century to contain good plasterwork.