Trekernell Farmhouse

Trekernell Farmhouse

A farmhouse with probable 15th-century origins, substantially altered in the late 16th or early 17th century. The building is constructed of stone rubble, partly slate hung, with a rag slate roof featuring hipped and gable ends. Stone rubble stacks project axially, laterally and at the end walls.

The house developed as a long four-room plan, though the original arrangement is uncertain. The lefthand room is heated by an axial stack and is adjoined to the right by a small entrance hall. A cross wing on the right is heated by a lateral stack, with a further room beyond originally heated by a front lateral stack. The lefthand room may originally have been detached; its original purpose is unclear. A blocked arched opening visible on the front elevation may mark the position of the original entrance. The range to the right appears to have early origins and contains a Tudor arch within the cross wing. However, the cross wing appears to have been altered in the late 16th or early 17th century, probably when the roof was raised. This alteration may coincide with the joining of the main range and the lefthand building by means of a small connecting room, which now functions as an entrance passage. The circa 15th-century arched entrance to this room appears to have been reset at this time.

The building presents two storeys with an asymmetrical two-window front facing the yard. The cross wing's gable end projects to the right of centre. A 19th-century outshut, remodelled in the 20th century, forms a porch with a granite chamfered two-centred arch. The cross wing to the left has an outshut continuing around the gable end with a reset segmental chamfered granite arch. A truncated lateral stack stands to the right of the main range. To the left of the entrance is a 19th-century 16-pane sash on the ground floor to the far left, and two 19th-century two-light casements on the first floor. The dressed quoins, roughly in line with the axial stack, indicate that the lefthand section was built first; the outline of a two-centred arch is visible on the ground floor to the left of the straight joint. The eaves above this lefthand range appear to have been raised. The remains of a granite surround to a two-light mullion window survive in the lefthand end wall. The garden front is partly slate hung with two-light casements on both ground and first floors.

Interior

A circa 15th-century granite arched entrance leads into a narrow room with a heavy cross beam running from left to right, chamfered on the front with straight cut stops. The rear face of the beam is unchamfered, suggesting that a partition originally ran beneath it and that this room was initially divided, with a corridor to the front connecting the cross wing on the right with the lefthand room. The lefthand room has a timber segmental arched doorway. Most ceiling beams have been replaced except for one fairly slight chamfered beam. The fireplace is blocked by a Rayburn stove. The cross wing to the right is divided from the adjoining range by a thick stone rubble wall containing a granite Tudor arch. The ceiling is very high with closely set unmoulded beams, now covered over. A 20th-century grate serves the fireplace. Lead shot was discovered in the wall adjacent to the fireplace in the cross wing during recent alterations.

The roof structure was only partly accessible. The cross wing contains two trusses with morticed apices and dovetailed single notched and lapped joints; the purlins are trenched. Part of one blade appears blackened, possibly by soot. The righthand range has a circa late 17th or 18th-century roof with crossed, lapped and pegged apices and cambered and slightly chamfered collars, partly halved, lap-jointed and pegged. The roof structure of the lefthand range was not accessible as there was no roof hatch and the feet of the principals have been boxed in.