Trethevy Cottage

Trethevy Cottage is an early to mid-17th century farmhouse, later used as a pair of cottages and now a single house. It was altered in the mid-19th century and has undergone further later alterations. The construction is granite rubble, rendered except for the left side, with a slate roof featuring ridge tiles and gable ends. There is a granite stack with a cornice and shaped top at the left gable, and a tall rear lateral granite stack with a cornice and shaped top to the right.

The original plan appears to have been a three-room-plan house, now reduced to a hall and inner room. The hall is on the right, heated by the rear lateral stack, while the inner room to the left is heated by the gable end stack and includes a rear stair tower. Around the mid-19th century, the lower end and passage to the right were demolished, and the house was divided into two one-room-plan cottages, with a stair inserted in the hall and the inner room, utilising the stair tower. New entrances were created directly into each front room. The house is built into the bank on its left side.

The exterior is asymmetrical with a four-window front. The first floor has four different-sized two-light casements. On the ground floor, the room to the left has a central gabled porch with two-light casements to each side, the one to the right retaining a chamfered granite surround with stooling remaining for a mullion. The room to the right has a central door with two-light casements to each side, the one to the left also with a granite surround. The left side is blind, built into the bank, while the right side has a small single-light window at first floor level. The rear features a large external weathered stack and a square stair tower with a pitched roof and a single light.

Inside, the hall to the right has a very large chamfered granite lintel over the rear fireplace, supported by curved granite corbels, and narrow chamfered cross beams. A 19th-century winder stair is located to the right. A solid wall separates the hall and the inner room. The inner room sits at a higher floor level, and has a three-bay ceiling with large, deep-chamfered beams with run-out stops. The cross beams are slightly dressed, with some renewed in the 19th century. A 20th-century fireplace is set into the gable end stack. Windows in the front wall feature deep splayed reveals. The ground floor granite windows are hollow-chamfered on the inside. At first floor, the feet of the principals are visible, but are not chamfered. The roof space is inaccessible; the stair tower has been closed off at both ground and first floor levels. Trethevy Cottage, like Trethevy Farmhouse, likely originated as a substantial house of high status with good quality detail, situated in an isolated location. It is unusual to find two houses of this size in close proximity in this area of Cornwall, with the cottage constructed shortly after the farmhouse.