Retallack Farmhouse

Retallack Farmhouse is a farmhouse that likely dates from the mid to late 17th century. It has been altered internally in the 19th century and extended in the late 20th century. The building is constructed of granite rubble with dressed granite quoins, lintels, and door and window frames. It features an asbestos slate roof with gable ends and gable end stacks that have weathered drip courses and tapered caps, with the right-hand stack being significantly larger.

The plan of the farmhouse is a double depth integral outshut design. It has two principal front rooms, with the larger kitchen on the right heated by a gable end stack, and a smaller room on the lower left end, also heated by a gable end stack. At the rear, there are two shallow unheated rooms with a staircase situated between them. The staircase was not inspected, and the original position may have been different. There was likely a cross passage between the two front rooms, but in the 20th century, the partitions were removed, including the one between the left-hand room and the shallow rear room, creating one large room.

The exterior of the farmhouse is two storeys high and nearly symmetrical with a three-window range. The first floor features three early 19th-century 16-pane sash windows. On the ground floor, the left side has a two-light horizontally sliding sash window with glazing bars, while the right side has two chamfered granite window frames with plate glass. The doorway to the left of centre has a chamfered granite doorframe with a four-centred arch and pyramidal stops. At the back, the integral outshut on the right has three small 20th-century plate glass windows, and to the left, there is a large late 20th-century gable-ended wing with sash windows that have glazing bars.

Inside, the partitions between the front room and the front left-hand room and the room in the rear outshut have been removed to create one large space. The interior features late 19th-century softwood exposed joists. The large fireplace in the right-hand room is made from reused pieces of granite, while the fireplace at the left-hand end is from the 20th century. Retallack was part of the manor of Merthen, as noted in Charles Henderson's "A History of the Parish of Constantine in Cornwall."