Penfound Manor

Penfound Manor

This is a manor house, now in residential use, with origins in the 15th century or earlier, substantially remodelled in the 17th century, and further altered in 1950. The building is constructed of dressed stone with quoins to the left-hand wing. The 15th-century hall masonry is of very small dimensions, with granite dressings and bitumen-painted rag and scantle slate roofs with gabled ends. Stone chimneys with drip courses and tapering tops are positioned to the left.

The house follows a 3-room and through passage plan, originally consisting of a 6-bay medieval hall with a cross passage entered through a single-storey porch, a heated room to the right known as the "little hall", and a further unheated room beyond. A 16th-century heated parlour was added in a projecting left front gabled wing with a solar above. In the 17th century, the parlour was remodelled, the "little hall" was heated, and a kitchen was added behind it.

The building is two storeys with an asymmetrical elevation of 1 + 5 windows, dominated by a front left wing with gabled ends. A break in the masonry on the front marks the end of the medieval hall. The off-centre gabled stone porch sits to the right of the hall, with a 4-centred arched granite moulded doorway featuring double broach stops with a central ball motif. A square-headed hoodmould with label stops frames the doorway. A granite inscription carved in relief in the spandrels reads "IN THE YEARE 1642". A 17th-century sundial sits in the porch gable. The front left wing displays a tall 4-light hollow-chamfered granite mullioned window with leaded panes beneath a timber lintel. A massive projecting lateral stack with a tall stone shaft rises on the right return of the wing. To the left of the porch is a 4-light hall window of late 18th or early 19th-century date, a casement with leaded panes. Two further ground floor windows to the right of the porch are 2-light casements with leaded panes, both under timber lintels. A 3-light hollow-chamfered granite mullioned window sits on the ground floor to the right. The first floor window in the front wing is a 2-light casement with 20th-century leaded panes. A small raking dormer rises slightly above the eaves to the right of the porch, containing a 2-light casement with 20th-century leaded panes. Three first floor windows to the right of the porch are casements with 20th-century leaded panes. A lateral projecting stack to the rear, heating the hall, is buttressed, as is the rear wall of the hall itself. The porch has a 4-plank studded inner front door of circa mid-17th century date with a moulded doorframe, and the porch roof features pegged collar rafters constructed from re-used timbers.

Interior

The floor of the through passage is laid with cobbles in a decorative pattern. The hall has a raised floor with an early 20th-century fireplace that partially conceals chamfered granite jambs. A 17th-century frieze of ornamental plasterwork depicting leaves and grapes runs along the top of the hall walls, probably restored. Beneath the floorboards, the hall floor is said to cover an earlier surface of sheeps' knuckles. The parlour contains a large fireplace with a 17th-century ovolo-moulded fireplace beam with double step stops, the inner stops decorated. This fireplace was uncovered during the 1984 survey and is thought to conceal an earlier fireplace. A narrow plaster frieze of grapes adorns the parlour walls. A late 17th or early 18th-century 6-panel door leads from the parlour to the stair to the solar. The staircase, probably of early 17th-century date, features turned balusters.

The "little hall" has a brick floor, a partially blocked fireplace, and an open frame of timber studs supporting an early depression imperial stair with unusually heavy turned balusters. A large depression in the floor between the "little hall" and passage formerly contained running water conducted under the house by drains; it is now filled with concrete rubble to facilitate easier access. The ground floor room to the right of the "little hall" has a slate floor and roof supported by two boxed-in RSJs replacing former cross beams which were reputedly supported by two granite monolith shafts, now repositioned to support a rear porch canopy. A vine carving appears above the window to the front. The former kitchen in the rear wing has an early 20th-century fireplace with a probably 17th-century granite lintel visible above it. A wide 2-panel 17th-century door separates the kitchen from the "little hall". First floor rooms above the lower end feature ovolo-moulded doorframes. Two late 17th-century pine 9-panel doors are preserved. The former hall gallery above the through passage has a fireplace with an ovolo-moulded stopped fireplace beam and a plaster frieze of grapes on the walls. A 1950 bathroom above a 1950 kitchen at the lower end is entirely painted and signed 1950 by David Gentleman, the graphic designer of postage stamps.

Roof Structure

The roof above the solar, probably of 16th-century or earlier date, has collars mortised into principals and two tiers of threaded purlins. The roof above the hall consists of four probably 15th-century smoke-blackened arched brace trusses with chamfered braces, queen struts, square-set purlins, and yoke. The principals have curved feet resting on the wall plate and are jointed at collar level. One truss has failed; the others are repaired with iron straps. Smoke-blackened rafters are largely concealed by foam insulation. The roof beyond the through passage is raised, but the survival of a similar truncated smoke-blackened truss beyond the stack to the "little hall" suggests an original length of 6 bays, with one truss removed when the stack was inserted. The truncated truss retains smoke-blackened studs for a partition below the collar. The raised roof consists of one probably 17th-century truss with a chamfered, cambered collar (formerly with trenched purlins) and three further pegged trusses, probably also 17th-century, with straight collars (one missing) halved and pegged into the principals.

Historical Context

Penfound is a Domesday manor, originally held by the wife of Edward the Confessor before passing to the Count of Mortain. William Penfound served as MP for Bodmin in 1431 and 1432. In 1588, Carew recorded the Penfound family as being "among the chief gentry of the County". The house was substantially altered in the early 20th century when fireplaces were concealed and internal doorways were replaced with heavy stone arches.