Lower Trekenner Farmhouse And Cottage

Lower Trekenner Farmhouse and Cottage is a 15th-century open-hall house, now divided into two cottages, with significant 17th-century remodelling and later additions and alterations dating from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The building is located in Lezant, Trekenner.

The structure is constructed of roughly coursed slate stone, with slate hanging applied to the right gable end of the right cottage and rendering to the remainder. The roof is slate, arranged in three sections, with asbestos sheeting to the rear of the right cottage.

The original open-hall house comprised an open hall (subsequently floored over with a stack inserted in the 17th century), a through passage, and a lower end to the left, which was largely rebuilt in the 19th century. The upper end, now Trekenner Farm Cottage, survives almost intact. The buildings are 2 storeys.

Trekenner Farmhouse, occupying the left part of the lower end and the right part of the former hall, features two 20th-century casements directly below eaves to the left, plus two further casements to the ground-floor left and centre of the left section, with a 20th-century gabled porch to the right positioned on the site of the original through passage. An opposing doorway to the back wall is now internal. The right section contains a 19th-century casement, a 20th-century casement to the left directly under eaves, and a large mid-20th-century metal casement on the ground floor. An integral end stack, inserted in the 17th century, is located to the left, and a smaller integral end stack serves the left section. A lean-to to the rear of the right section, now carried down as a catslide outshut, was formerly under a separate roof pitch.

Trekenner Farm Cottage has two irregularly spaced 19th-century casements on each floor, those to the first floor positioned directly below eaves. Access is through a 20th-century plank door in a lean-to abutting the right gable end, which has an external end stack with a red brick top. A slate-hung lean-to adjoins the rear.

The interior retains significant original features. The end stack at the lower end of the former open hall contains a large open granite fireplace on the ground floor with a continuous moulded lintel and jambs. Lower Trekenner Cottage preserves three deep-chamfered cross beams, including one above the fireplace, supported on a granite corbel to the left of the fireplace. These beams feature unusual carved stops with ballflower terminations and finely moulded joists. The end of the middle beam has been cut away to accommodate a later staircase.

Original access to the first floor of the solar was by a semi-circular staircase projection against the back wall, reached through a 15th-century round-headed pegged doorway with a similar doorway offset on the first floor. The top steps of this staircase survive, though the remainder was destroyed when the present lean-to to the rear of the cottage was built. The first floor of the solar retains its original floorboards. A 17th-century chamfered wood doorway leads from the solar to the inserted first floor of the former open hall. Immediately facing this doorway at the top of the former staircase projection is an oak-stud wall with an infilled doorway, presumably formerly providing access to the first floor of the solar.

The roof of the solar is arranged in three bays and was probably originally visible from the first floor. It features cambered collar trusses with chamfered, unblackened principal rafters displaying curious stepped notched joints to the collars; some thatching spars remain. The right end truss practically abuts the gable end, and the left bay is separated from the former open hall by a stone wall rising to the apex.

The roof structure of the former open hall is visible in the roof space and employs common rafter construction, largely replaced by new timbers around 1980. Some traces of blackening remain, though this may not result from smoke from a former open hearth.

A 20th-century flat-roofed addition at right angles to the rear of the lower end is not of special architectural interest.