High Hall Farmhouse

High Hall Farmhouse

A farmhouse of late 16th to early 17th-century origin, with significant additions and alterations spanning the 17th to 20th centuries. The building demonstrates the typical evolution of a Cornish farm dwelling, expanded and modified to reflect changing agricultural and domestic practices.

The original house was constructed in slatestone rubble with granite dressings, featuring a rag slate roof with ridge tiles. The left end has a gable, while the right end is hipped. A gable end stack with rubble shaft and cornice rises at the left; a rear lateral stack set in a raised gable with brick shaft stands to the right.

The original plan comprised three rooms and a cross passage: the inner room and hall lay to the left of the passage, with the lower end room to the right. This core survives, with the solid masonry wall still dividing the passage from the lower end room. The hall is heated from the rear lateral stack, while the inner room is heated from the gable end stack at the left.

In the mid to late 17th century, a stair tower was added to the rear left of the hall. Shortly after, an unheated dairy with loft over was added to the rear of the upper end room. Probably in the 18th century, a single-storey unheated outshut was built at the rear right of the hall.

The most significant alteration came circa late 18th to early 19th century, when the lower end room was demolished and replaced by a cross-wing at the right end, creating a symmetrical front elevation at this end of the house. This cross-wing is constructed in stone rubble, slate-hung at the front and sides, with a hipped slate roof and ridge tiles. It contains a two-room plan with rooms of equal size to the left and right, each heated from an end stack. A central entrance hall connects to a stair hall at the rear. Later in the 19th century, a scullery and wash house were added at the left end of the cross-wing, with a corner stack at the front.

The front elevation presents two storeys with an asymmetrical three-window arrangement. All front windows are 17th-century granite work. At ground floor, both left and right contain four-light windows with chamfered mullions, king mullions, hood moulds, and 19th-century two-pane lights. The first floor has three-light chamfered granite windows to left and right, and a two-light granite window off-centre to the right. The late 19th-century scullery addition forms a porch in front of the passage doorway, with a plank door beneath a cambered brick arch and a two-light six-pane 19th-century casement with flat brick arch. The inner doorway to the passage has a four-panelled 19th-century door. At the left end, a 20th-century two-light six-pane casement with timber lintel is inserted at ground floor. A straight joint in the masonry marks the dairy addition to the left.

At the rear, the dairy with loft over stands to the right, with a plank door beneath a timber lintel and a small single casement above with slate cill. To the left, a straight joint in the masonry indicates the stair tower, which has a blocked window with slate dripstone at ground floor and a three-light chamfered granite window at first floor, both 17th-century work. A straight joint to the left marks the single-storey outshut, featuring a 19th-century four-pane sash and half-glazed door, both with cambered brick arches. The cross-wing at the right end is two storeys with a symmetrical three-window front. The ground floor has a central gabled stone porch with rounded hollow-chamfered doorway, containing an inner six-panelled fielded 18th-century door with overlight featuring diamond pattern glazing. Late 18th-century 16-pane sashes flank the porch to the right and left, with sidelights to the left. The first floor has a central 18th-century 16-pane sash with later 19th-century four-pane sashes to right and left. The left end of the cross-wing is blind and slate-hung, with slate-hanging continuing for half the return wall at the right end.

The interior preserves significant 17th and 18th-century features. In the passage, part of a plank and muntin screen of late 17th to early 18th-century date survives to the left, with a 19th-century dresser built into the inner side. The room is ceiled below beam level, which may have been replaced. The rear lateral fireplace is partly blocked, fitted with a 20th-century range and 19th-century mantel on shaped brackets. The front window is hollow-chamfered inside with splayed reveals. Doorways to the inner room and rear stair tower share matching design: ovolo-moulded frames with vase stops featuring scroll and diamond carving. The rear doorway has mouldings and stops on both sides, not rebated for a door. The inner room doorway contains a 17th-century eight-panelled door with scratch-moulded battens and raised panels.

In the upper end room to the left, the gable end fireplace has been removed, though the granite hearth survives. Two very large ceiling beams rest on scrolled corbels. The front window is hollow-chamfered inside with splayed reveals and slate cill. The room has a slate floor and was partitioned, probably circa late 18th century, to create two unheated dairies with slate shelves. A cupboard with slate shelves lies to the left of the former fireplace.

The stair tower contains a doorway into the rear outshut with a 17th-century three-panelled door with moulded battens. A wide winder stair with replaced treads leads to a landing with a late 17th-century balustrade featuring columnar balusters with moulded tops and bases, columnar newel, and moulded handrail. The loft over the dairy has a plank and batten door with strap hinges, and its room contains roughly hewn beams with purlins resting on the backs of the principals. The chamber over the upper end room has an ovolo-moulded doorway of matching design to the ground floor, with vase stops, and contains a 19th-century chimneypiece. Two small rooms above the hall each have plank and batten doors with studs and thin moulded battens. The 19th-century cross-wing contains an open-well stair with stick balusters, and a small closet room above the entrance hall at first floor.

The roof structure over the upper end room, hall, and passage survives with trusses probably of early 17th-century date. The principal rafters are roughly hewn and chamfered, halved and pegged at the apex. Collars are cambered and chamfered, halved and pegged to the principals. Trenched purlins support the roof.

High Hall Farmhouse was formerly part of the Lethbridge estate.