Pencalenick House

Pencalenick House is a country house, now used as a school, dating from 1881. It was designed and completed by Charles Williams, and bears the initials M.H.W. on its cast iron rainwater heads. The house is constructed of freestone ashlar with darker coloured detailing, and has Delabole slate roofs, some hipped and some polygonal. It comprises a rectangular main block around an open courtyard, with a stair turret in one corner and an external service wing to the northeast. The south garden front has a symmetrical arrangement of 3:1:3:1:3 bays, with the central three bays projecting forward and topped by a pediment. Flanking these are two-storey canted bays. The facade is characterised by a plinth, platband, cornice, and parapet. Windows are 18-pane sashes to the central and canted bays, and 12-pane sashes elsewhere. All windows feature horns and have elaborate, shaped, moulded, and keyed window heads to the central and end bays. A tetrastyle Tuscan porte cochere of two storeys with a three-window projection and pediment is set into the west front. Chimneys feature scrolled buttresses. The interior includes a wide, open well staircase with turned balusters, and ornate plaster ceilings and cornices, including Arabesque and geometric strapwork designs in the vestibules, reputedly executed by Italian craftsmen who also worked on Truro Cathedral.