The Old House

THE OLD HOUSE

House. Rebuilt or remodelled in 1627 (datestone) for Richard Bailey. Constructed of stone rubble, partly rendered, with a cement-washed slate roof. The roof has a gable end to the hall on the right and a hipped end to a projecting two-storey porch on the left. A stone rubble end chimney stack serves the hall. A projecting stone rubble chimney stack with a 20th-century brick shaft stands in the lower side wall on the left, now heating rooms formed in a wide through passage. A small projecting rendered lateral chimney stack in the right-hand side wall of the two-storey porch heats the first floor room of the porch; the shaft has been removed although the fireplace remains.

The plan suggests the remains of a much larger house that has probably been reduced, with the lower end demolished and the interior remodelled in the late 19th and mid-20th centuries. A large room on the right survives, possibly the original hall, with a two-storey porch to the left and a wide through passage. The passage has been converted into a small sitting room with the front and rear doors blocked. A small hall passage has been inserted at the higher side between the passage and hall, with a door introduced in the corner of the porch. An early 20th-century stair has been inserted to the rear of the later hall passage. A turreted stair projection remains to the rear of the hall although the winder stair has been removed. A circa mid-19th-century outshut extends to the rear.

The front elevation displays two storeys in an asymmetrical three-window arrangement, with the range at the higher end remodelled in the mid-19th century. The main range on the right features a 16-pane sash with horns with a brick segmental arch on the ground floor. The remains of a moulded string course above the ground floor to the right of this opening probably continued as a dripmould over the hall window, which may have been a stone mullion window of three or four lights. Above are two 16-pane sashes with horns with brick segmental arches. The two-storey porch has a rollmoulded three-centred arch in a granite surround with a hoodmould. The date 1627 is incised in the spandrels and the initials R B are carved in square label stops. Above, an early 20th-century three-light casement sits in a rectangular granite surround as a mullion window with jambs, lintel and hoodmould retained. An inner door within the porch has a four-centred granite arch with recessed spandrels with small central balls, chamfered arch and jambs with ogee stops with balls. This opening is now blocked and partly glazed with the entrance door to the right in the angle. In the right-hand gable end, the chamber over the hall is lit by a two-light mullion window with a hoodmould; the mullions are chamfered with hollow chamfers to the inner face. The rear elevation includes a stair projection partly incorporated in the later outshut, with a first floor granite jambs and lintel for a two-light mullion window opening.

The interior through passage is now blocked, though the rear entrance to it is visible from within the rear outshut; it has a shallow four-centred granite arch with chamfered unstopped jambs and arch. The hall on the right features heavy chamfered ceiling beams at fairly close centres, with only one beam stopped with runout stops. A large fireplace has a probably replaced unmoulded granite lintel, with an unmoulded granite upright to the left and a further fireplace opening with a further unmoulded granite lintel to the left. A cloam oven with door is present. The stair projection to the rear of the hall has a segmental-arched opening, now blocked, in its side; the winder stairs have been removed. The first floor includes a circa 17th-century fireplace in the room above the porch, constructed of granite with chamfered jambs, chamfered and stopped lintel and a granite hearth stone. A 19th-century nailed collar rafter roof shows no evidence of an earlier roof.

Several pieces of dressed granite in the garden feature heavy chamfers with ogee stops and bar and ogee stops. To the right of the house stand two circa 17th-century granite columns on square bases with capitals, found buried in the garden and resited.

The Domesday Manor was held prior to 1066 by Uhtred. The Bailey family lived at Killigorick from at least 1620 to 1708. The will of Richard Baley of Duloe, dated 1620, is held at Cornwall County Record Office, together with an inventory of goods of the said Richard Baley, late of Duloe, taken at Killigorick. The will of his son, Richard Bailey, dated 1683, is also held there. The datestone and initials on the porch probably refer to the latter.