Pawton Farmhouse And Garden Walls To Front

Pawton Farmhouse and the garden walls to the front are likely from the 18th century, with extensions made in the early 1800s. The farmhouse may have earlier origins and incorporates materials from a previous manor house. It is constructed of stone rubble and features an asbestos slate double-span roof with gable ends and brick end stacks, the left stack projecting.

The plan of the farmhouse has been altered, making the extent of the earlier house uncertain due to significant remodeling in the 19th century. It has a double-depth plan with a central entrance, two reception rooms at the front, a staircase at the rear of the passage, and originally a kitchen and dairy at the back.

The exterior is two stories high with a symmetrical three-window front, featuring 16-pane horned sash windows and a 20th-century plank door in the center. The rear elevation is asymmetrical.

Inside, there is an early 19th-century staircase with a turned newel and stick balusters. In the room on the rear right, there is a reset timber lintel from the earlier manor house, adorned with a series of cusped mouldings that may date back to the 16th century. This lintel has been reset asymmetrically and truncated on the right.

The front garden features a slatestone wall, which has a high ramped section on the west side, tapering down in height towards the front (south) and to the east.

Historically, the parish was taxed under Pawton in the Domesday Book. It was initially given to the see of Cornish Bishops, then to the Bishop of Crediton, and eventually became the seat of the Bishops of Exeter. The manor once included a deer park, and in 1283, the Jurymen of Pydar complained that the Bishop of Exeter had obstructed the public highway at Pawton by building the deer park walls.

Pawton later became the property of the Prior of Bodmin and was seized during the Dissolution, remaining in Crown hands until 1606 when it was granted by King James I to Sir Arthur Gorges. The manor had a court let, and there was a prison at Penquain.