Tregembo Farmhouse

Tregembo Farmhouse

Farmhouse, dated to circa mid-17th century, remodelled in the late 17th century and again slightly in circa mid-18th century. The building is constructed of granite rubble with granite dressings, roofed mostly in scantle slate with granite ashlar stacks over the gable ends, though the left-hand wing has some asbestos slate. Some 17th-century handmade crested clay ridge tiles survive.

The house has a U-shaped plan to the front, with a stair hall positioned to the left of the middle of the main range and partly within a kitchen wing at right angles behind the stair hall. A further shallow wing comprises a first-floor room carried on a 2-bay open colonnade with reused columns positioned behind the right-hand side. The front wings, at right angles to either side of the front, are of equal depth, each with a 1-room plan. The left-hand wing contains a ground and first-floor parlour. The right-hand wing has a former stair tower on the right, separating a large kitchen with an enormous fireplace and large oven on the ground floor from a chamber or parlour above.

Apart from the front and rear kitchens, all rooms are large (though some were later divided) and appear to have been parlours or principal chambers. The attic is accessed by both stairs, with the main stair rising into the roof space as if originally leading to a second storey. All visible roofs are 18th century or later, and it is probable that the original roof space was intended for servants' quarters and secondary chambers. Attic floors are carried on 17th-century cross beams. The colonnade, possibly dating from the early to mid-17th century, may originally have formed a central feature at the front of the house, possibly carrying a range that closed the U-shaped plan (compare Godolphin House and Pendeen Manor). A reused chamfered quoin in the left corner of the right-hand wing evidences some rebuilding. A bothy once stood at right angles to this wing on the right. The surviving present plan is mostly 17th-century fabric, though part may incorporate earlier walls. There is some 18th- or 19th-century rebuilding to the right-hand wall of the rear kitchen, to the right-hand wall of the main range, and possibly to the rear wall of the main range.

Exterior: Two storeys with a regular 1:2:1 bay front facing roughly west. The first and last bays form the gable ends of two deep wings at right angles to the front, both with single window fronts facing into the courtyard. The main range front has a doorway to the left and ground and first-floor windows to the right. All window openings facing into the front courtyard are wide but were formerly wider, probably when originally fitted with granite mullioned windows. They are now spanned by oak lintels (some or all of which are reused ship's timbers) and fitted with 19th-century or later sashes. The door is 18th century with panels and a circa mid- to late 18th-century Chinoiserie-glazed top panel.

The gable end of the left-hand wing has two original chamfered single-light windows to the ground floor, one either side of the fireplace. The rear gable end of the same wing has the outer frame of a former 2-light window with stooling for a central mullion. Another original 17th-century 3-light window with complete mullions survives to the left-hand wall of the rear kitchen wing. To the first floor towards the right is a 18th-century 12-pane 2-light casement with thick glazing bars. On the ground floor of the back wall are two chamfered openings, one a former doorway possibly in situ. A similar chamfered doorway with diagonal stops appears in the right-hand wall of the front kitchen wing. The stair hall, partly in the rear wing, is accessed through a doorway in the left-hand wall of this wing, fitted with two bolection-moulded outer doors protected by a hood and with an 18th-century inner door featuring wide glazing bars to the glazed upper panel. The front door likewise has an 18th-century inner door.

Interior: Virtually all structure, carpentry, joinery and architectural features are 17th or 18th century.

Circa mid-17th-century features include a chamfered granite fireplace in the front left-hand room with unfinished tooling to the chamfer of the lintel; the fireplace of the front kitchen with dressed granite domed oven; ovolo-moulded ceiling cross beams with ogee-tongue stops, probably throughout the house, though some have circa late 17th-century plaster cornices added and some are hidden by 18th-century or later flat ceilings; and an ovolo-moulded doorframe with bar and tongue stops.

Circa late 17th-century features comprise a fine open-well stair with closed string, heavy column-turned balusters and turned finials and pendants to panelled newels (the upper flight is oak-grained, possibly original); fielded and bolection-moulded panelling and chimneypieces to the rear right-hand room and chimneypieces to the front chamber in the right-hand wing, the rear chamber of the left-hand wing, and the chamber over the rear kitchen; and a fine bolection-moulded panelled room to the front left chamber with a very robust torus-moulded central oval featuring bay-leaf carving.

18th-century features include many 3-pane doors and moulded ceiling cornices, chair rails, and a nearly complete circa mid-18th-century panelled room to the ground-floor left wing with dentils to the moulded cornice.

Historical Context

The site of this house may be pre-Conquest. There is a reference to an Edward Berner before 1083, and the name Tregembo has been variously spelt, including Tregebri and Tregember. A circa 1800 cupboard bears the name William Borlase written on a label, possibly a descendant of the Borlase family, of which William Borlase the 18th-century antiquarian was a member.

This is a fine 17th-century house with high-quality 17th- and 18th-century features. The colonnade, though probably resited, is particularly interesting and warrants comparison with Godolphin House in Breage parish and Pendeen Manor Farmhouse in St Just parish.