Penrose Manor House

A country house originally built in the 17th century for the Penrose family, probably by John Penrose (died 1679). The building was substantially remodelled and extended from around 1788 for John Rogers and again from around 1832 for the Reverend John Rogers. Further extensions followed in 1863 by William Webb for John Jope Rogers, with remodelling in 1867, the addition of a buttery in 1868, and the rebuilding of the centre of the Loe elevation in 1927–28.

The principal front is faced in Elvan ashlar with a granite ashlar plinth, granite string course and parapet. The other elevations are mostly Killas rubble with granite dressings, some slatehanging, and some stucco within the courtyard. Roofs are covered in scantle slate and dry slate, mostly hipped. The northwest front displays a moulded parapet and 17th or early 18th century battlements to the left with numerous 17th-century crested ridge tiles above the hipped roof and a gadrooned urn over the left-hand corner. The southeast corner has a late 19th-century parapet and weather vane, and cast-iron ogee gutters, mostly with lions' heads, run along the southwest front. Brick chimney stacks have moulded cornices throughout.

The original 17th-century U-shaped plan front survives to the northwest, now incorporated into the present irregular square plan ranged around a small courtyard. The principal northwest front is nearly symmetrical with a 1:2:3:2:2-bay arrangement, incorporating the original 2:3:2-bay front with a blind bay addition on the left and a 2-bay addition on the right, with 2-bay inner returns featuring blocked window openings. The windows are early and mid-19th-century hornless sashes with glazing bars. A central doorway with Tuscan pilasters is surmounted by a carved eagle, formerly positioned above the parapet, with a pair of late 19th-century two-panel doors beneath.

The southwest front comprises a seven-window range: a wide three-window projection on the left with a resited late 18th-century Venetian window to the right of centre; a recessed three-window central range; and a large octagonal three-light bay on the right with the stuccoed return of the southeast front to the far right, which includes a ventilated larder window to the ground floor. Most windows are early or mid-19th-century hornless sashes with glazing bars, with a round-arched doorway towards the left and another doorway left of centre, both with early 20th-century doors.

The southeast front is an irregular seven-window range with predominantly late 19th-century features, including four gabled roof dormers and a similar dormer to the left-hand return. The centre three-window range has mid-19th-century twelve-pane hornless sashes and a central late 19th or early 20th-century classical-style doorway with a six-panel door. The three-window range on the left includes a later 19th or 20th-century twelve-pane horned sash over a blocked doorway, flanked by canted bays. The left-hand bay is mid-19th-century with hornless sashes with glazing bars over a 20th-century garage projection, while the other bay is a late 19th or 20th-century horned copy over a similar but larger ground-floor bay. A late 19th-century Gothic-style bay at the far right of the southeast front features two-light mullioned windows with eight-pane hornless sashes.

The northeast front has a 2:6:1-bay arrangement, with the left-hand bays similar to the return to the southeast front. The central bays, rebuilt in 1927–28, feature 12-pane horned sashes and a recessed splayed doorway on the right with a six-panel door flanked by eight-pane sashes. At the far right stands a large early 19th-century two-storey three-light bowed window with 12-pane sashes divided by granite mullions. The courtyard features mostly mid-19th-century hornless sashes with glazing bars.

Interior features, recorded from partial inspection, include a 17th-century ovolo-moulded granite door jamb to the rear of the central passage. The right-hand wing of the northwest front retains an early or mid-18th-century panelled room with fielded panels (later graining), a doorway with dentils and six-panel door, an eared overmantel, a moulded ceiling cornice, and a ceiling with moulded ribs including a round central panel with key-pattern and acanthus rose. The chamber above features a similar doorway and door, an eared chimneypiece with key-pattern cornice, and a coved ceiling with dentilled cornice. The stair hall behind has a large early 20th-century open-well staircase with heavy turned balusters. The chamber behind the stair hall has an 18th-century coved ceiling over a moulded cornice. Behind this chamber is the room with the octagonal bay, which displays late 19th-century moulded and enriched classical-style plasterwork.

The estate's history can be traced to at least 1269, when land at Penrose was held by the Penrose family. The estate grew through various land grants and inheritances, several resulting from marriages linking the Penroses with other leading Cornish families including the St Aubyns, Tremayne, Methele, Erissey, Killigrew, and Rashleigh. Hearth Tax records show thirteen hearths in 1664. Between 1750 and 1770, the estate was purchased by Hugh Rogers. His son John married Margaret, daughter of Francis Basset of Tehidy, became Member of Parliament for Penryn, served six times as mayor, and held the position of deputy Lieutenant of Cornwall. Hugh Rogers and his son the Reverend John Rogers undertook many of the major alterations and additions at Penrose. John Rogers' eldest son, John Jope Rogers, became deputy Lieutenant of Cornwall and Member of Parliament for Helston from 1859 to 1865. Later notable members of the Rogers family include John Lionel Rogers, born in 1880, who married Caroline Ford of Pengreep and became High Sheriff of Cornwall.