Warmington Hotel House

Warmington Hotel House, No. 32 Market Place, Camelford

This is a private house, now operating as a hotel. It dates from around the early 17th century and was substantially remodelled in the late 18th or early 19th century. The building is constructed of rendered and painted stone rubble with a slate roof featuring gable ends and a gable end to the rear wing on the left. Large brick stacks are present on the right-hand gable end, whilst the left-hand gable end has a moulded stack dating from around the early 17th century with a granite cap. A further brick stack sits on the rear gable end on the left.

The ground level slopes down on the right-hand side and rises towards the rear. The original plan of the house is uncertain, though it may have been one of a row of 17th-century town houses. A house adjoining on the left-hand gable end possibly relates to what is now No. 34 Market Place and No. 2 Chapel Street. It is unclear for which building the early 17th-century moulded granite stack on the left-hand gable end was originally constructed. The house likely originally comprised two rooms with a through passage, both heated by gable-end stacks. Around the mid-17th century, a probable kitchen wing heated by a gable-end stack was added to the rear of the left-hand room. Circa mid-18th century, the house underwent partial alteration with several doors featuring raised and fielded panels, and a stair was possibly added in a projection to the rear of the through passage. In around the late 18th or early 19th century, the house was substantially remodelled; the existing earlier stair was replaced and the front range was raised from two-and-a-half storeys to three storeys. In the mid to late 20th century, an extension was added to the rear of the left-hand wing and to the rear of the right-hand room.

The front elevation displays three storeys above basement and remains unaltered from the early 19th century. It features a symmetrical three-window front with a central entrance flanked by an early 19th-century eight-panel door, a semi-circular fanlight, and a doorcase with fluted pilasters and Doric frieze. The ground and first floors have early 19th-century sixteen-pane hornless sashes, whilst the second floor has early 19th-century four/eight-pane hornless sashes; the central second-floor sash window has been replaced with a horned sash. The front elevation is largely obscured by ivy. The right-hand side elevation of the rear wing contains an early 18th-century twelve-pane sash window with thick glazing bars of ovolo-moulded section on the interior and unmoulded flat section on the exterior.

The interior features a wide passage with a 19th-century moulded arch to the rear, leading through to the rear wing. The left-hand room contains a circa late 19th-century marble chimneypiece with corbelled brackets and an early 20th-century grate. The fireplace in the rear kitchen wing was remodelled in the late 20th century and has a carved head above the lintel; although executed in a medieval style, it has been painted and its date is difficult to determine. Circa mid-17th-century chamfered ceiling beams are present, though their stops are obscured. The stair dates from circa early to mid-19th century, with the lower stage featuring turned balusters and the upper stages fitted with stick balusters and square newels. The first floor contains several four-panel doors with raised and fielded panels, and the bedroom on the left has a timber chimneypiece dating from circa late 19th century, decorated with marbling.

The roof structure in the rear kitchen wing comprises three pairs of principals, halved, lapped and pegged at the apices, with slightly cambered collars lapped and pegged to the face of the principals. The roof above the front range was replaced in the late 19th century, though one truss of circa early 19th-century date survives at the lower roof height.

The building's history is documented in deeds. Warmington House was sold to George Warmington in 1704 for £190. In 1722, Lord Falmouth purchased the property described as "one messuage or dwelling house . . with the Courtilage Malthouse Dryhouse Shopp and Hoggstyes thereunto belonging to the said messuage on the backside thereof and one meadow adjoining to the said plott". In 1822 it was sold to the Earl of Darlington, later Duke of Cleveland, together with a pew in the parish church (see Church of St Julitta, Lanteglos-by-Camelford).

Warmington House is of interest both as an example of a 17th-century town house and for its early 19th-century remodelling, which survives unaltered. The early 18th-century sash window in the rear wing is a rare survival in Cornwall.