Crocadon

Crocadon is a house of mid-17th century origin, extended to the south-west in the late 18th or early 19th century. It is built of stone rubble, rendered on the north-west of the rear wing, with large granite quoins to the south-west range. The rear 17th-century wing has a cement-washed scantle slate roof with a hipped end on the right (north-east). The front features a lateral stone rubble stack with stone rubble and brick shaft on the left, and a projecting stone rubble stack with a short brick shaft on the right-hand hipped end. The south-west range has an asbestos slate roof with half-hipped ends and projecting stone rubble stacks with brick shafts set in the half-hipped ends and also to the rear where it meets the 17th-century range.

A drawing of Crocadon from the Spoure Book of 1698 illustrates a mansion house of overall E-shaped plan with projecting gabled wings and a central gabled two-storey porch. It is possible that the existing 17th-century range incorporates the remains of this mansion house, with the wings and porch demolished and a two-room range added to the south-west in the late 18th or early 19th century. The house was then partly remodelled and re-orientated. The lower end of the remodelled 17th-century range is heated by a projecting end stack, and the hall, on the left of the entrance, is heated by a front lateral projecting stack.

The south-west front of the later range is two storeys with a symmetrical three-window arrangement. The ground floor contains two 20-pane sashes with rendered eared architraves and mid-19th-century hoods. The first floor has three 12-pane sashes with rendered surrounds. An entrance in a circa early 20th-century lean-to porch is positioned on the right-hand half-hipped end. A stair window in the rear wing is a 30-pane sash with thin glazing bars. The rear 17th-century wing presents a regular four-window south-east front across two storeys. The ground floor contains a two-light casement with segmental brick arch, a timber plank door in a stone rubble porch with a slate-hung gable end and slate roof, and to the right another timber plank door with brick segmental arch and two-light casement with dressed stone arch. The first floor has four two-light casements with glazing bars.

In the interior of the 17th-century range, the ceiling beams have been replaced. Fireplaces are blocked, and there are possible remains of a further early fireplace in the thick wall between the 17th-century and late 18th-century ranges. The roof structure above the higher end was not inspected but may provide further evidence of the evolution of the plans. In the later two-room range on the south-west, the left-hand room (west) contains circa early 19th-century ovolo panelling with dado and box cornice, and two circa late 18th-century six-panel doors. The roof structure above this later range comprises 17th-century oak pegged trusses with wary collars, chamfered and lap-jointed, which have been cut down and re-used.

Crocadon was anciently the seat of the Trevisa family. John Trevisa, Chaplain to James, 6th Baron Berkeley, was one of the earliest translators of the Bible. He also translated Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum, the Polychronicon of Ralph Higden, and a treatise on all the Acts of King Arthur. He died in 1470. On the failure of the male heirs in 1690, the estate was purchased by the Corytons.