Higher Spargo Farmhouse Including Adjoining Walls At Rear

Higher Spargo Farmhouse is a complex rural dwelling comprising elements built over more than two centuries. The farmhouse includes adjoining walls at the rear.

The building comprises three distinct structural components arranged in an overall U-shaped plan. The principal element is a granite ashlar fronted house of the 19th century, erected around 1810 with the front portion remodelled circa 1893. At right angles behind the right-hand side stands a range probably dating to the 18th century or representing an 18th-century remodelling of an earlier 17th-century structure. A 17th-century two-room plan house runs parallel to the 19th-century house at the rear on the left side.

Construction throughout uses granite rubble with granite dressings, limewashed to part, with the exception of the 19th-century house which has granite ashlar to its front. The 19th-century house is roofed in dry Delabole slate, while the earlier ranges use scantle slate. Rendered brick chimneys sit over the gable ends of the 19th-century house. An axial brick chimney rises towards the rear of the 18th-century range, and a tall rubble stack sits over the right-hand end of the 17th-century house.

The 19th-century house is two storeys with a symmetrical three-window south-south-east front incorporating a central doorway. The design features a plinth and granite ashlar with flat arches and projecting keystones over the openings. The entrance comprises a possibly original six-panel door with overlight, a circa 1893 dressed granite distyle classical style porch, and four-pane horned sashes of the same date. The rear elevation has an original flush-panelled door and circa mid-19th century twelve-pane hornless sashes. The right-hand wall contains a possibly original sixteen-pane hornless sash.

The 17th-century house presents a two-window front with an approximately central doorway. A wooden lintel sits above the doorway, which retains an old ledged door. To the left of the doorway is an original small 17th-century chamfered granite window opening; to the right is a larger 17th-century three-light chamfered granite mullioned window. The first floor windows, probably enlarged in the 18th or 19th century, are more closely spaced and contain circa early 19th-century two-light windows with mortices for vertical glazing bars. The right-hand window has internal glazed casements.

The 18th-century range's left-hand wall displays a probably reused 17th-century chamfered granite doorway on the right and the rebated head of a 17th-century window to its left, which has been restored with a mullion recently (1987). A 17th-century chamfered jambstone, possibly in situ, stands on the left of the outer doorway to the through passage. A four-centred arched doorway in the courtyard wall was repositioned circa 1984, having been removed from the rear of the through passage at Lower Spargo. The hogs back copings on the courtyard wall were cut for Higher Spargo in 1836, as recorded in account records. A granite monolithic mounting block stands to the right of the through passage outer doorway.

The 19th-century house plan comprises two rooms at the front flanking an entrance hall, leading to a stair hall between a kitchen at the rear left and probably a pantry or dairy at the rear right. The 18th-century range contains one room at the front; its fireplace in the front right-hand corner has been remodelled as a stair to a small gallery. Behind this room runs an axial through passage with a service room beyond. Above the passage and service room is a heated chamber with a fireplace sharing a flue with the large stack of the 17th-century house, accessed by a large flight of stone steps.

The 17th-century house comprises an unheated room on the left and a heated kitchen on the right, with a large fireplace and doorway leading into the larger room. Behind the left-hand room is a later pantry outshut; behind the kitchen is a shallow outshut, possibly original and perhaps a furze cupboard or bed space. This 17th-century house may be all that remains of a larger group of 17th-century buildings on the site, with the principal 17th-century house possibly having occupied the location of the present 19th-century house.

The 19th-century house interior features a large fireplace in the kitchen with reused 17th-century granite jambs and lintel. Other interior features date largely from the 1893 remodelling and include panelled doors, plaster ceiling cornices, and turned-baluster stairs. The 17th-century house retains a softwood plank and muntin partition between rooms, a large granite fireplace spanned by a hardwood lintel, and a 17th-century chamfered granite fireplace to the chamber above, with probably 19th-century first floor and roof structures. The chamber adjoining the gable end of the 17th-century house contains a 17th-century chamfered granite fireplace, possibly resited, with its lintel cut from an earlier gatepost with sockets for loose bars.

Additional structures include a 19th-century lean-to on the left of the 17th-century house and a circa late-19th century range of four pigsties (now roofless) adjoining the left-hand side of the 19th-century house. A high wall encloses the left-hand side of a courtyard between the 19th-century house and the 17th-century house, with another wall at the rear of the small farmyard on the left.

From the 17th century until the 17th century, Higher Spargo was occupied by a branch of the Godolphin family. It was subsequently held by the Hawkins family of Trewinnard.