California House, Gate Piers and Gate is a Grade II listed building in the Cornwall local planning authority area, England. First listed on 12 March 1986. Lodge.

California House, Gate Piers and Gate

WRENN ID
dusted-paling-evening
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Cornwall
Constituency
Truro and Falmouth MP: Jayne Kirkham (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
12 March 1986
Type
Lodge
Address
California House, Gate Piers and Gate, Kea
OS grid reference
SW 816 430
Coordinates
50.24712, -5.06376
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

California House is a lodge that includes gate piers and a gate, now functioning as a private house. It was built around the 1840s and features shale rubble walls with granite quoins and freestone window jambs and arches. The gabled roofs are covered with asbestos slate and have projecting eaves and verges adorned with cusped and traceried bargeboards. There are brick chimneys located on the right side wall and the rear gable of the main structure. The building has an L-shaped plan consisting of three rooms and a porch projection, with later infill at the angle. It is designed in the Tudor style and is a single storey plus a basement at the rear, with part of the roof space converted for accommodation by the addition of a large roof dormer in the 20th century.

The east-facing road front features the main gable end, which has a scrolled and cusped bargeboard and a central bay window with four lights and ovolo-moulded mullions, with the roof renewed in the 20th century. The gable at the rear has a similar bargeboard. There is a steep dormered gable with an elaborate shaped bargeboard over a window projection to the right, which contains an original two-light window with arched lights forming simple Y-tracery within a steep four-centred arched opening, complete with a hoodmould above.

The entrance front, facing south, has a 20th-century alteration on the left but retains a gabled porch to the right of the middle. This porch features an intricate cusped and traceried bargeboard with carved flower cusps and an arched and braced open doorframe. A 20th-century door and sidelights are present. The gable end opposite, on the north side, has a similarly ornate bargeboard. To the right of the porch, there is another original single-light window with a hoodmould. The interior has not been inspected. Near the porch, there are 19th-century moulded granite gate piers that survive, along with a richly detailed close-barred and arcaded wooden gate. Despite some alterations in the 20th century, this lodge retains several original windows and exceptionally elaborate bargeboards.

Local climate

California House, Gate Piers and Gate receives an average of 850 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 59% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 84% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 7 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 95% of listed buildings. Of these, 3 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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