The Glebe House

A substantial house of late 16th or early 17th-century origin, with significant alterations dated 1638 recorded on a rainwater head, followed by further changes in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building stands on the north side of the market place at St Columb Major.

The structure is constructed with slatestone rubble at ground floor, timber-frame and slate-hung walls at first floor, and partly roughcast rendering. It is roofed in slate and asbestos slate with ridge tiles and gable ends. Chimneys are positioned at the axes and gable ends with brick shafts.

The building as it survives is a fragment of a formerly larger house. A passage and room that once existed at the left end were removed around the early 19th century. The surviving plan comprises a hall to the left with an inner room to the right. The hall retains a recess in its left-hand wall that may mark a former doorway into the vanished passage. The hall was originally heated from a stack at its left side, which backed onto the passage. The inner room to the right was also heated from a stack at the left side.

In 1638, the house underwent major remodelling and extension. A two-room addition was created at the rear of the hall, comprising a stair hall and rear kitchen heated from a rear gable end stack, with a small unheated room beyond. The building height was raised to two storeys above the hall and three storeys above the inner room, the latter jetted out, with the second-floor room reached by a second stair at the rear. Around the 18th century, a small lean-to was added at the rear of the inner room. The main entrance was repositioned into the front of the inner room, probably when the passage and left room were removed in the early 19th century. At that time the hall was converted for retail use, with a door and shop window inserted into the front. The right-hand room is currently used as a tea room.

The exterior displays considerable architectural interest. The hall to the left features a hall bay. At ground floor, this bay contains a square bay shop window of 24 panes with glazing bars, flanked to the left by a narrow plank door with glazed panel. At first-floor level, a three-light bay window of early 18th-century date contains casements with a central light of nine panes and outer lights of six panes with sidelights and L hinges. Above this rises an oversailing gable decorated with slate-hanging and supported on carved brackets with pierced decoration and pendant finials. A lead rainwater head to the right is dated 1638.

The bay to the right is set back and rises through three storeys. At ground floor, a three-light casement comprises lights of three, six and six panes respectively with cock's head hinges, and a timber lintel continuous over the door to the left, which is a 20th-century replacement. At first-floor level the front is blank, with a heavy rubble corbel to the left supporting the upper gable and a four-pane sidelight to the right of the bay window. The oversailing gable features decorative slate-hanging and a five-light eight-pane casement with cock's head hinges. The entire upper storey at the front and to the right rests on a moulded timber wall-plate.

The right side of the front elevation is rendered at ground floor. At first floor, a 17th-century bay window contains a five-light casement with ovolo-moulded wooden mullions, though the lights were replaced with four-pane examples in the 19th century. The second floor is jetted out above, featuring a gable end with decorative slate-hanging and a four-light window with wooden ovolo-moulded mullions and iron stanchions, though the glazing is 20th-century. The purlins project beyond the wall face in the gable. To the right there is no ground-floor window, and a small gable with decorative slate-hanging sits above the upper stair hall, with a three-light 20th-century casement lighting the upper flight of stairs. A blocked window lies below.

The left gable end is slightly advanced, and at second-floor level a small four-pane sidelight is set diagonally in the window. The rear elevation features a gable end to the left with slate-hanging to the upper part and a two-light four-pane 20th-century casement at first floor. At ground floor to the left stands a single-storey lean-to with a stable door and large six-pane light. To the right is the two-storey rear wing, originally the lower end of the house, with a gable end stack of brick shaft. The inner side displays a 19th-century six-pane sash at ground floor and a 19th-century three-light six-pane casement at first floor. A later one-room addition of probably 19th-century date occupies the end at a higher roof level, with 20th-century windows, and a single-storey 20th-century lean-to extends further.

The interior reveals the complexity of the building's development. The ground-floor room to the left (the hall) has a 20th-century rebuilt fireplace and ceiled interior, with the wall stepped forward at the front to form the hall bay. The front room to the right contains roughly hewn beams and a 20th-century rebuilt fireplace. The rear wall has a stone sink set within its depth on the window cill, with beams running from front to rear and a heavy cambered beam across.

The stair hall is positioned to the rear of the hall and contains a wide dog-leg stair of early 17th-century date, probably 1638. The upper flight retains 17th-century turned balusters with a moulded handrail and square-moulded newels. A cupboard under the stair has a plank door with strap hinges. The rear room to the left features a large gable end fireplace with a chamfered wooden lintel and a large cloam oven behind; this was originally an external stack, with the outer wall added inside the room to the rear. A blocked window in the left wall was originally at the front of the house. The rear addition has thick walls and was probably constructed in the late 17th or early 18th century.

At first-floor level, the front rooms to left and rear left both possess two-panelled doors of early 17th-century date with moulded panels and quality ironwork featuring fleur-de-lys strap hinges. The front room to the left retains one truss, probably from the original build though substantially rebuilt. This truss has principal rafters halved and pegged, with a cambered collar originally notched and subsequently reset above, and formerly had trenched purlins. Two large beams run across in the position of former wall-plates. The rear room has stud partition walls and roughly hewn beams arranged as a dado rail. The fireplace at the rear gable end features a timber lintel with chamfer and run-out stops, and a truss with principal rafters and collar chamfered with run-out stops.

The front right room has roughly hewn beams, a plank door with strap hinges, and a fireplace with a moulded timber lintel. A straight flight of stairs at the rear right ascends to the second-floor room, with turned balusters, a moulded newel with acorn finial (all early 17th-century), and a moulded grip handrail. The second-floor room has a five-bay roof with principal rafters and collar, much rebuilt. The principals include collars and two rows of trenched purlins, with small arched braces on the upper collars. Principals are halved at the apex. The fireplace has a moulded wooden lintel with scroll and bar stops.

The evidence suggests the house was originally larger, extending further to the left. The position of the surviving truss over the hall roof indicates that the building has always been aligned roughly east to west, and what survives represents the hall and inner room of a formerly larger structure that was considerably enlarged and remodelled around 1638. The room to the rear right would have been an early rear wing in this configuration.