Redevallen

Redevallen is a substantial house at Trevalga, probably dating from 1642 as evidenced by a datestone, though it may incorporate earlier origins. Built of slate stone rubble with a rag slate roof, the building presents an almost symmetrical five-window front with gabled end walls.

The house follows a two-room and wide through-passage plan with a two-storey central porch. The front elevation features a two-storey gabled wing on the right forming a bay projection, and a shallow two-storey wing on the left with an unusual arrangement where the first floor is jettied out over the ground floor; this left wing may be a later, circa 19th-century extension. Single-storey outbuildings continue to the front left, with a service outshot to the rear left.

Chimneys comprise stone rubble stacks on the right and left hand gable ends, a rendered stone rubble axial stack to the right of the two-storey porch backing onto the passage, and a stone rubble stack on the gable end of the rear wing, which was rebuilt in the late 20th century.

The porch entrance has a flat-headed chamfered granite arch with diagonal stops and an inner C20 door, with a one-light window above having a chamfered granite frame. The front elevation displays two asymmetrically-placed two-light mullion windows on the ground and first floors to the left of the porch, a two-light granite mullion window to the right, a three-light granite mullion window in the bay projection, and two two-light granite mullion windows above ground floor openings. The rear wing has granite lintels and left-hand wall asbestos-slate hung.

Internally, a thick cross wall on the right of the passage contains the axial flue and probably once held a fireplace backing onto the passage, now blocked; the right-hand room is heated by a fireplace in the gable wall. A thinner cross wall on the left rises to the first floor. The probable parlour on the right has a low plaster ceiling and a C20 grate to the fireplace in the gable wall. A plaster frieze in the window reveals on the front left displays a floral trail decorated with strawberry leaves and fruit.

The left-hand room, probably the original hall or kitchen, contains a partly rebuilt fireplace with a brick segmental arch, a cloam oven, and a possible smoking chamber (now a cupboard) on the left, with a low plaster ceiling. A low blocked door at the rear of this room shows evidence of a later inserted doorway to the left. A stone newel stair with slate treads to the rear left rises in a quarter turn, though the original service wing arrangement is uncertain; the circa 1642 house may have had a narrow service range containing this stair alongside the left-hand gable end stack and possibly a buttery to the right.

The rear service wing appears to have been considerably remodelled and widened in the mid 19th century, when a narrow kitchen wing, probably added in the late 17th century, was extended to run behind both the passage and left-hand room. A further single-room kitchen wing was added to the rear gable end in the late 19th century.

The first floor contains two back-to-back fireplaces with C19 cast-iron grates heated by the axial stack, and a small room above the porch with entrance having a flat granite arch and chamfered lintel and jambs with pyramid stops.

A lean-to outshot to the rear of the right-hand room, possibly originally a stair projection, has been partly rebuilt and reduced in height, with a blocked window opening in the side wall and evidence of a blocked door opening partly obscured by the lean-to roof on the first floor.

The roof structure appears to have been replaced in the mid to late 19th century, with collars lapped and bolted onto the face of the principals. The foot of the front principal of the right-hand truss is supported by a heavy timber joist spanning the projecting bay.

Redevallen is reputed to have been the Manor House of the Manor of Trevalga. Historical sources record that the principal room was decorated with a moulded cornice and formerly had a fine moulded ceiling, and that the walls were pierced for musketry.