The Farmhouse, Polanguy

The Farmhouse, Polanguy

This is a farmhouse dating from the 17th century with an early to mid 19th-century extension. It is built of granite rubble with squared granite dressings beneath a grouted scantle slate roof with gabled ends. The 19th-century extension has red brick chimney stacks with gabled ends, whilst the 17th-century rear wing has a gable end stack. A massive dressed granite stack with granite weathering and capping marks the junction between the two ranges.

The original 17th-century house survives as the rear (east) service wing. It originally had a two-room plan facing north, with the lower west end comprising the hall and kitchen, which had a gable end stack and a projecting stair turret at the rear. The smaller room to the left was unheated. A cross-passage probably ran between the two rooms, though there may alternatively have been a third room at the lower end with a cross or through passage, since demolished. In the early to mid 19th century, the house was reorientated and extended by adding a cross-wing at the right (west) end facing west, which relegated the original house to service use. The 19th-century extension has a symmetrical two-room plan with end stacks and a straight flight of stairs rising from an entrance lobby between the two rooms. When the 17th-century wing was reused as the service area, its internal plan was rearranged, though the original hall and kitchen area was retained as the kitchen. The interior was not inspected, so the precise internal arrangement cannot be fully described. In the 20th century, an outshut was added in the angle between the two ranges.

The building is two storeys. The symmetrical west front of the 19th-century extension has three windows with early to mid 19th-century 16-pane sashes, a central doorway with a 19th-century four-panel door and rectangular overlight. All windows and the doorway have dressed granite lintels and the windows have granite cills. The rear of this 19th-century range has one small 19th-century 16-pane sash on the first floor to the right.

The north front of the rear wing (the original house) has three two-light twelve-pane casements on the first floor and two 20th-century metal-frame casements on the ground floor, with a doorway between them and a 20th-century door. A rendered 20th-century outshut stands in the angle to the right. The south elevation of the rear wing, which is the back of the original house, has a rectangular projecting stair turret in the left-hand angle where it meets the 19th-century extension. On the first floor is one central chamfered granite single-light window frame, and on the ground floor is a central doorway (possibly a later insertion) flanked by two 20th-century metal-frame casements. The east gable end of the rear wing has a ground-floor window with a chamfered granite lintel that may be a doorway jamb with a pyramid stop. A small chimney stack, covered in ivy, stands on the gable above.

The interior was largely inaccessible. The left-hand room of the 19th-century extension has panelled cupboards on either side of the fireplace, which has a bracketed shelf to its chimney-piece.

According to Henderson, "In the house is preserved a piece of wood with the initials TMC and date 1660. These stand for Thomas Cocke, yeoman and Mary his wife, who appear as resident at Pellanguy in poll-tax of that year."

Polanguy was a farm of 60 acres and formed part of the manor of Tucoys, the only manor in Constantine mentioned in the Domesday Book. The farmhouse was formerly within Constantine parish before the parish boundary was altered.