Froxton Farmhouse And Froxton

Froxton Farmhouse and Froxton is a group of two farmhouses, originally a manor house, dating to the 15th century with significant alterations in the 16th and 17th centuries, some 19th-century remodelling, and recent 20th-century changes. The west range is built of slatestone rubble with polyphant and granite quoins, featuring a slatestone rubble and freestone lateral stack and a slate roof hipped at each end. The east range is pebbledashed stone with a gable-ended slate roof and a brick axial stack.

The west stone range’s south end reveals evidence of an original open hall plan, now divided into two rooms with a through passage leading to a rear outshut. A projecting front-right section has an outshut with a catslide roof and granite quoins. The lateral stack is now enclosed by the front-right outshut. An earlier eight-bay pebbledashed stone range projects from the rear, creating an approximate ‘T’ plan. The pebbledashed stone range also displays evidence of an original open hall layout. A wing with a hipped slate roof projects southwards from the east end of the pebbledashed stone range.

The west range has a two-storey, three-window front, the third window located in the right projection. A change in roofline indicates rebuilding to the left of the through passage, accessed via a porch formed from two large slates. Ground floor windows include a three-light casement with glazing bars on the left and a two-light casement with glazing bars in the projection. The first floor has a three-light casement with glazing bars, and a two-light casement with glazing bars above the porch. A ground-floor room to the right features a partially blocked fireplace with chamfered granite jambs, and a blocked newell stair to the right of the stack, accessed through a chamfered, four-centred arched wooden doorway. The stair has oak treads and a rectangular stone light. The cross beam has stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops. The cross passage has timber walls of horizontal planks with painted graining. Visible principals in the rooms above the hall are chamfered arch braces. Four possibly smoke-blackened trusses are visible in the roof space, featuring chamfered arch braces, collars, and trenched purlins; one truss has a yoke.

The south front of the pebbledashed stone range is two storeys high with three windows, including an off-centre 20th-century doorway. Ground floor windows have been renewed, and two first-floor windows are set under raking roofs projecting slightly above the eaves. The axial stack originally had two flues, one now blocked and one partially blocked. Principals upstairs are boxed in, but crucks are likely. The wing projecting from the pebbledashed stone range is open to the roof and was formerly ceiled, displaying principals with curved feet. Remains of a cobbled yard are located to the west of the stone range.

Froxton is a manor recorded in the Domesday Book. It was held by the Giffords in the late 14th century and subsequently passed to the Downe, Roose, and Spoure families. The house is depicted in the Spoure Book of 1698, illustrating the extant buildings as part of a courtyard plan, with two ranges now missing (a copy is held at the Cornwall Record Office, F.S. 3/93).