Stuart House

Stuart House, Barras Street, Liskeard

A late medieval house, remodelled and extended in the 17th century and slightly altered in the mid-19th century. This is a well-preserved and important example of an early Cornish town house.

The building is constructed of rubble walls, with slate-hanging on masonry and studwork to the second floor left of the front and at the rear of the original range. Nineteenth-century stucco has been stripped from the right-hand return elevation to reveal rubble walls beneath. The roof is covered in dry Delabole slate. A brick chimney stands over an external lateral stack at the rear left, another over the gable end on the right, and gable stacks to the rear wings have been reduced to roof level.

The original plan consists of a 2-room range with through-passage at the front, approximately 1 metre thick outside walls, with the hall on the left and lower end on the right. A 17th-century porch fronts the passage. A mid-18th-century stair hall lies to the right of the porch, possibly occupying the space of a former 17th-century stair hall which probably replaced a 16th-century newel stair at its rear. Masonry walls flank the stair hall. A pair of attached 3-storey wings was added to the rear of the lower end in the 17th century; further extensions may have existed at the higher end, since removed.

The building is 3 storeys with an irregular 4-window front range. A 3-storey gable-ended 17th-century porch, left of centre, contains a reused 15th-century moulded granite doorway with its 2-centred former equilateral-arched head reset in squat position. A 19th-century wrought-iron gate hangs here. The original 2-centred arched doorway, similar to the porch doorway but undisturbed, fronts the through-passage within the porch and is fitted with an early 19th-century panelled door. Two mid-19th-century 12-pane hornless sashes sit over this doorway, with two more on the second floor left of the porch. Two further sashes occupy the stair hall to the right of the porch, and another sits at first floor right. A 17th-century chamfered granite single-light window lights the cellar under the stairs, with two similar windows to the second-floor return walls of the porch. A late 18th-century tripartite sash occupies the middle of the wall at first floor left, above an early 20th-century three-light transomed casement with some coloured glass. A similar but wider window sits at ground floor right. The rear of the main range has two mid-19th-century 12-pane sashes to the first floor and another to the second floor left.

The ground floor features a full-width early 20th-century conservatory with a wide early 20th-century glazed doorway, glazed panelled door and round-arched overlight, all with some coloured glass. To the right of the chimney breast is a doorway cut through a former window opening which retains chamfered granite jambs and head. The rear wing adjacent to the passage shows remains of mullioned windows at first and second floor on both the side wall and gable end, including a complete 2-light window with late 18th or early 19th-century casements to the second floor. The other wing shows traces of a former wing beyond, with a blocked former doorway and a blocked 17th-century window above.

The interior retains visible features and structure from many phases of development, with further 16th-century or earlier features likely hidden. The only visible 16th-century feature is a reused fragment of morticed collar roof structure built into a 17th-century heightened gable end on the right.

Seventeenth-century features include a panelled door between the stair hall and lower end room (one step down); floor structures for much of the house; a canted cupboard remaining from a former stair turret in the rear right-hand wing within the thickness of the original rear wall; a chamfered granite fireplace to the first-floor roof of the same wing; and chamfered roof structure with halved and lapped dovetail jointed collars to the other rear wing and porch, with vestiges of roof structure over the lower end.

Eighteenth-century features comprise an open-well open-string stair with column-over-vase turned balusters, a ramped mahogany handrail scrolled over the newel and shaped tread ends with guttae, moulded plaster ceiling cornices to the hall, the room above and stair hall, a plaster coved ceiling to the second floor of the rear right-hand wing, a chimneypiece and cast-iron grate to the left-hand wing, an elliptically-headed doorway with fanlight to the right of the passage, and many 2-panel doors with raised-and-fielded panels.

Nineteenth-century features include many chimneypieces, most with hob grates, and a panelled door with Perpendicular-style tracery.

A plaque records that King Charles I is said to have slept here for 9 nights in 1644.