Trewinnick Farmhouse

TREWINNICK FARMHOUSE, ST ERVAN

Two adjoining farmhouses, probably dating from the early to mid 17th century, extended in the 18th century and again in the late 19th century. The second farmhouse was added in 1827 for J. Bennett and extended in the mid 19th century. Both buildings are constructed of slate rubble.

The original house to the right (east) features dressed granite quoins, later red brick window sashes, and an asbestos slate roof with a half-hipped end to the right and a gable end to the left, both with rebuilt red brick chimney shafts. The 1827 house to the left has red brick window arches and a Delabole slate gable-ended roof with reused old crested ridge tiles and red brick gable end stacks.

The original 17th century house to the right has a two-room plan, each room heated from an end stack with a central entrance probably to a through or cross passage. A curved wall at the rear of the lower left end may indicate a stair turret. The rear wing with a gable end stack, to the left of centre, was probably added in the 18th century and was extended on its right hand side to form a dairy in the late 19th century, probably at the same time as the rear porch was built in the left hand angle of the rear wing.

The 1827 house is a separate building adjoining the left end forward of the original house. It has a double-depth plan with two principal front rooms heated from stacks at the sides and a central entrance between them. The rooms at the back are probably shallow service rooms. A wing with a gable end stack was built at the back to the left in the mid 19th century.

The building rises to two storeys. The south front elevation shows two distinct parts. The original early 17th century house, set back to the right, is nearly symmetrical. The old window openings have slate cills, cambered red brick arches and granite quoins to the jambs, with late 20th century windows with top opening lights. The central doorway has a chamfered granite four-centred arch frame with eroded pyramid stops and a 20th century glazed door.

Projecting forward to the left of the front is the 1827 house, featuring a two-storey symmetrical three-window front of original early 19th century sixteen-pane sashes with cambered red brick arches with granite keystones and slate sills. A similar arch spans the central doorway, which has a rectangular overlight with diagonal intersecting glazing bars and a 20th century plank door. Above the door is a granite tablet inscribed "J Bennett 1827". The left hand (west) side has 19th century sixteen-pane sashes.

The back of the 1827 house has a central doorway and various small 19th century casements and a sash with glazing bars. The wing to the left has a blind gable end with red brick stack.

At the back of the original house is a gable-ended wing with a rebuilt red brick stack. Where the wing has been widened on the left hand side, there is a window on each floor of the end wall: a 19th century sixteen-pane sash on the first floor and a twelve-pane horizontally sliding sash to the ground floor. In the angle to the right is a late 19th century red brick lean-to porch, which conceals the chamfered plinth of what might be the stair turret of the main range.

The interior was not accessible at the time of survey in 1987. The old plan is likely to remain and interesting carpentry and joinery probably survives.