Calenick House And Garden Walls To South And North

CALENICK HOUSE AND GARDEN WALLS

House with flanking garden walls to front and south and north, built or altered in 1702 and used as an account house for smelting works during the 18th and 19th centuries.

The house is constructed of slatestone rubble, except for the first floor of the front elevation which is slate-hung on studwork. It has a hipped scantle slate roof (Dry Delabole slate to the rear) with brick chimneys over the side walls. The left-hand chimney was rebuilt in the 20th century over the original external breast, while the right-hand chimney sits over a large external rubble breast with a brick oven projection. A further chimney, probably dating from the late 18th century, is positioned to the rear left of the right-hand room. The front features wide eaves supported by circa late 18th or early 19th century shaped paired wooden brackets.

The plan comprises two reception rooms flanking a left-of-centre stair hall, which leads to a stairwell between narrower rear service rooms. The right-hand reception room is wider, spanning three bays, and is now linked to the service room by a wide doorway with a higher floor level. A smaller service room survives to the right of the stair and connects to round cellars built into the bank to the rear. The house was extended in the 19th century by a room to the left of the rear service room.

The building is of two storeys with a symmetrical seven-window south front. The central doorway contains an original two-panel door beneath a pedimented wooden doorcase with fluted pilasters. Circa late 18th or early 19th century sashes with eighteen panes and much crown glass light the front, with original wooden moulded cornices above the ground floor windows beneath the slate-hanging. The rear features an original outer box frame to the stair window opening and an original nine-pane upper sash with very wide glazing bars and internal ovolo mouldings.

The interior is little altered, retaining original floors, most partitions, and a pegged pine roof structure with elm collars and an axial beam for chimney ties. Later plain ceilings may obscure original moulded cornices. Original two-panel doors with HL hinges featuring shaped terminals survive within original frames with cyma moulded architraves on the ground floor, with circa late 18th century two-panel doors to the first floor. Window shutters are less than full height. The original dog-leg closed-string staircase features column-on-vase turned balusters, a moulded handrail, square newel caps, and a pulvinated string. A circa late 18th century cast iron cupboard with fielded panels is fitted in the left-hand reception room. The first floor right-hand room contains a fine circa late 18th century fireplace surround with tapered fluted pilasters, an entablature broken forward over the pilasters and to the middle, and Adam style decoration to the frieze, with an iron grate of the same period. Panelled dado with a moulded chair rail is present. A grown oak lintel spans the hearth(s) in the rear left-hand service room. The cellars to the rear feature domed vaults and storage recesses.

The garden walls adjoin the right-hand (east) house wall to both front and rear. They are mostly of rubble, though the section to the front beyond the gate-piers is heightened with brick and has a brick cogged cornice under the coping. Much of the walling is coped with scantle slate and clay ridge tiles.

A smelting works operated on this site from 1711 to 1891, initially run by the Mitchell family, then by Daniell, and later by Bolitho. According to records held by a descendant of Mitchell living in South Africa, the house was rebuilt in 1702. The property represents a fine example of a Queen Anne period house, still retaining many original features, with particularly complete early 19th century front fenestration and significant industrial heritage associations.