Cartuther Barton And Courtyard Buildings To North East

Cartuther Barton and Courtyard Buildings to North East

A house and outbuildings of exceptional historical and architectural importance. The main house dates from the late 17th century, incorporating some earlier features, and was partly remodelled in the late 18th century. It was built for John Cole on the site of an earlier medieval manor house. The building is constructed of rubble slatestone with a slate roof featuring gabled ends.

The house follows a single-depth plan extended with outshuts to the rear. It is three rooms wide with two wide cross passages between them and two staircases contained in rear projecting wings. The main front is two storeys with a regular arrangement of five windows. A projecting rear lateral stack is incorporated into a later outshut, with two brick stacks on the rear north-east slope.

The ground floor was partly remodelled in the late 18th century. Four late 18th-century sashes with 15 over 10 panes (without horns) are set in cut stone segmental arches with crown glass. The first window occupies a wider opening, now partly blocked. The third window is in a blocked entrance. Between the first and second windows is a six-panelled door with a fanlight above, protected by a moulded timber hood with flat roof supported on moulded brackets. The rubblestone wall flanking the doorway has been partly rebuilt. Above these are five 12-pane sashes, all without horns and with exposed sash boxes. The glazing bars are heavy early 18th-century work, except on the second window. Timber lintels have been replaced above the second window. A dentilled cornice runs across the top of the front.

The interior contains exceptional late 17th-century joinery and decorative schemes. The room on the left has late 17th-century bolection-moulded wall panels and a chair rail, with an early 18th-century cyma reversa moulded cornice and a 20th-century fireplace. On the north corner is a niche, dating to around the 1750s, with a round-arched opening and moulded key. It features panelled pilasters and four shaped shelves with shell motifs above.

The room on the far right contains a large early 16th-century granite fireplace with a four-centred arch, roll moulding, and hollow chamfer. The jamb stops are unusual and similar to those of the inner door at nearby Tencreek Farmhouse.

A late 17th-century staircase in the rear projecting wing on the north side has a closed string with square newels, turned balusters, and a heavy, wide moulded rail that is ramped at corners. A half-newel and rail in relief appear on the opposite wall, repeated as a dado balustrade.

A bedroom on the left has late 17th-century fielded panels with bolection mouldings, chair rails, and a late 17th-century cornice comprising cyma, corona, ovolo, cavetto and ovolo. A late 17th-century chimney piece is intact, featuring simple bolection moulding and possibly original oil-on-wood painting depicting a rustic scene, with Delft tile splays.

Above the ground floor entrance, a powder room contains complete late 17th-century bolection-moulded panels with restored painted panels showing formal garden perspectives with tree-lined avenues in oil-on-timber. The painted surrounds may be later additions.

Other bedrooms retain late 17th-century fielded panels with bolection mouldings, late 17th-century cornices and early 18th-century cyma reversa cornices. Doorcases and double bolection-moulded doors remain throughout.

The roof timbers comprise 13 bays with heavy principals that are cranked at their feet and rest on the wall plate. They are chamfered below the collars with run-out stops. The collars are halved and pegged, with trenched purlins. The ridge is diagonally set.

The courtyard buildings to the rear, erected in 1844 by Samuel Kekewich (marked with a datestone "STK"), consist of a single-storied store, bakehouse, and piggery, all built of rubblestone with slate and galvanised roofs with gabled ends. The central two-storey bakehouse features eight rows of dove holes in the gable ends and contains a segmental granite arch to its fireplace with hollow chamfer, together with a bake oven on the left-hand side. On the north-east side of the courtyard is a reset granite arch in the rubblestone wall, a pointed arch with hollow chamfers and pyramid stops, with a hood above featuring diamond-shaped label stops.

Historical Context

Cartuther was a Domesday manor. Around 1400, it passed through the heiress of the Eling family (who adopted the name Cartuther) to the Beckett estate. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, it was the seat of Robert Beckett. Richard Symonds recorded it in his diary of the Marches of the Royal Army during the Great Civil War, writing on Friday, 2 August 1644, that it was "a large old house." It passed to the Cole family in the mid-17th century. According to C.S. Gilbert, John Cole was responsible for erecting the plain, unornamented mansion and for destroying the old house and its chapel. Gilbert also noted that the house was "easily distinguished through an avenue of stately trees," which is reflected in the painted powder room panels showing formal garden perspectives.

In 1686, William Morshead married the sister of John Cole, and the property passed to their son William. Several glass bottles have been discovered on the property, including one marked "1762 W" on the side, presumably belonging to William Morshead. In 1809, the manor was purchased by Samuel Kekewich.