Kestle Barton Farmhouse and Kestle Cottage, Including Adjoining Garden Walls

Kestle Barton Farmhouse and Kestle Cottage, including adjoining garden walls

This is a farmhouse, now converted into two houses, with adjoining garden walls. The building dates from the 17th century or earlier, and was remodelled probably in 1722 and 1744 (dates appear on the east front and south end). It is constructed of shale rubble with some dressed granite jambstones and slate sills, with wooden lintels and steep scantle slate roofs.

The overall plan forms an L-shape, consisting of two adjoining 17th-century or earlier ranges, each originally containing 3 or 4 rooms. Evidence suggests there was formerly a further range to the front right of the north range, forming a U-shaped plan. A projection at the rear right of the north range, probably a stair turret, is now blocked. Later lean-tos have been added at the rear of the west range.

The building is two storeys high. The west range has a hipped end with an axial rubble stack towards the left (south) and brick lateral chimneys over the rear wall and north gable end. The east front has four windows of irregularly sized and disposed openings, mostly late 18th- and early 19th-century 2-light casements or sashes with glazing bars. There are four doorways on this front: a low blocked doorway to an unlit cellar on the left with granite steps; a 17th-century granite doorway with chamfered frame (blocked); a window with an adjoining doorway; and a 4-centred arched granite doorway with chamfered frame. Above one of the doors is a plaster coat of arms displaying three castles and the date 1744. The window openings over the datestone appear to be inserted or enlarged, possibly in what was formerly unpierced wall.

The north range has a regular 3-window south front with square first-floor window openings containing late 18th-century 12-pane 2-light horizontal sliding sashes. Below the left-hand window is a wide opening with a late 18th-century 3-light casement. A doorway beneath the left-hand window has a ledged door and a lean-to slate-roofed porch incorporating two staddle stone shafts as pillars. The ground-floor right-hand window has been deepened in the 20th century and fitted with a pair of glazed doors. The granite jambstones and quoins of this front date from the 18th-century remodelling. Reused fragments include an inverted datestone with the initials W W and date 1721 as a quoin in the south-west corner, and the head or sill of a mullioned window high up in the north wall. The north range has an external lateral gabled rubble stack with brick shaft to the rear and a brick chimney over the gable end.

The interior has been little altered since the 18th century and contains numerous features from this period: stairs with heavy column turned stair balustrade near the angle, dado panelling to the north-west room, some 2-panel doors, some fireplace surrounds, and a pegged lapped collar pine roof structure. The north range has two large fireplaces, while those in the west range are partly blocked. The 17th century is represented by a ceiling in what is now the pantry adjoining the left of the hall/living-room, featuring chamfered and stopped cross beams. Further early features may be hidden elsewhere.

The adjoining rubble garden walls have hogs-back dressed granite copings.

According to the present occupier of Kestle Barton Farmhouse, the house is recorded as having been rebuilt circa 1550. It was formerly the home of the Kestle or Kestell Family, whose coat of arms bore three castles. This is a rare early house for this part of Cornwall and is remarkably unaltered since the 18th century.