Trevithick Farmhouse

Trevithick Farmhouse, St Ewe

A farmhouse dating from around the 16th century, substantially altered and enlarged during the early 19th century, with further modifications in the later 19th and 20th centuries. The building is constructed from slatestone rubble with granite dressings, partly rendered, and is roofed in hipped slurried scantle slate with ridge tiles.

The original plan consisted of three rooms with a through passage. The lower end room, situated to the right, was heated by an end stack with a rendered shaft. The hall and inner room to the left were served by back-to-back fireplaces drawing from a granite ashlar axial stack with weathered string and embattled top, probably rebuilt in the mid-19th century. A second axial stack with an octagonal brick shaft of early 19th-century date stands to the right.

Early in the 19th century, a single-storey addition with loft was added to the rear left, behind the inner room, with loft access from an external stair at the left end. At the same time, the room behind the inner room became the kitchen, a straight stair was inserted in the through passage, and the rear doorway was blocked. The lower end room was partitioned into two rooms, with a new axial stack built to heat the secondary space. In the later 19th century, a small single-storey unheated addition was made to the front of the inner room using earlier materials. The 20th century saw further additions to the rear of the hall and lower end, along with a two-storey rendered flat-roofed extension.

The exterior presents a two-storey asymmetrical three-window front. The ground floor features a three-light chamfered granite window to the left with rebuilt mullions and 20th-century casements and hood mould; two three-light granite windows lighting the hall, the left with chamfered granite mullions and 19th-century two-pane casements, the right with eight-pane 19th-century casements; and a four-centred arched hollow-chamfered granite doorway to the passage with ball stops, recessed spandrels with balls, and hood mould, fitted with 19th-century panelled and glazed double doors. The lower end room has no window. The first floor contains three two-light chamfered granite windows with stoolin­gs remaining for mullions, all fitted with 19th-century twenty-pane sashes. A small single-storey addition projects from the front with a flat roof, moulded granite coping, and a front window. The right end is blank, finished with long and short granite quoins. The left end has a 20th-century plank door at ground level; the first floor features a three-light chamfered granite window with stoolings for mullions and three-pane 20th-century casements. A straight joint marks the masonry line to the outshut, where an external stone stair leads to the loft door, which has a 20th-century window inserted in its opening; the top step is a reused granite cider pressing bowl. A 20th-century two-light window appears at ground floor. A range of single-storey outhouses is attached to the left in four builds, with scantle slate roofs, ridge tiles, and gable ends; some feature corrugated iron roofing, and one has a gable end stack with brick shaft. All have 20th-century doors and windows.

Internally, the inner room retains roughly hewn ceiling beams and a fireplace with a resited cloam oven fitted with a cast iron door. The hall is ceiled and has a 19th-century fireplace; the main window is hollow-chamfered on the inside and retains 19th-century panelled shutters. A small blocked window appears at the rear of the passage; the granite doorway here is said to survive with the same design as the front passage doorway. The lower end room has a 20th-century French window leading into the 20th-century addition at its rear. At first-floor level, the chamber over the inner room has a granite fireplace, partly blocked, with ball stops visible and ball stops at lintel level of similar design to the front passage doorway. An unexplained recess in the front wall of this room does not appear ever to have functioned as a window.