Rialton Manor

Rialton Manor

A house of 15th-century origin that formerly belonged to Bodmin Priory, later becoming a farmhouse. It was enlarged and altered in the early 16th century for Prior Vyvyan of Bodmin, with subsequent alterations in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The building is constructed of slatestone rubble with granite dressings, with a 19th-century slate roof, partly slurried, featuring crested ridge tiles and gable ends.

The house represents the remains of a formerly much larger building that would originally have had a front courtyard. The main range consists of the hall and one room, with the hall to the right heated from a gable end stack. It was originally heated from an open hearth. The through passage has the rear door blocked and a solid masonry wall to the left with an inserted fireplace (the axial stack), with no partition remaining on the right-hand side. One room to the left is heated from a gable end stack. The stacks were probably inserted during the major alterations of the early 16th century. A wide two-storey porch was added to the front of the passage, featuring a stone vaulted entrance and a small store room to the right; to the left is a closet which may be the site of a stair tower. At first floor, a chamber was created in the centre of the house partly over the hall and including the front bay. Probably in the 18th century, a one-room addition was made to the right end as a kitchen, with a gable end stack with oven. The house may formerly have extended further at the left end, where the masonry is stepped back at first floor level; the left end room does not appear large enough to have served as a lower end room servicing a large hall. An enclosed courtyard lies to the front of the house.

The exterior presents an asymmetrical two-storey front with a two-storey porch tower set off-centre to the left, featuring a hollow-moulded cornice and embattled parapet. The porch tower has a four-centred arched doorway with Pevsner A-type piers and relieving arch, with 20th-century double doors. The interior of the porch features a stone vaulted roof with moulded ribs and convex-moulded wall plate, with a slate paved floor. This was formerly used as a dairy when the house was a farmhouse. At first floor there are three three-light mullion and transom windows with three-centred arched lights above the transoms. Between the two windows to the left is a wide mullion with two vertical panels featuring blind cusped arches; the wide mullion to the right is similar with only one vertical panel. The glazing is lattice with iron stanchions of the early 16th century. Below the window to the left is a stone quatrefoil, originally lighting the stair. The right side of the porch tower has a two-centred arched hollow-chamfered doorway with a 20th-century door, leading to the store room which has only external access. To the left of the porch is a 20th-century two-light casement at ground and first floor, both with hollow-chamfered granite jambs and a 19th-century segmental arch. To the left is a 20th-century glazed door. To the right of the porch are two two-light casements at ground and first floor with segmental arches. The right end addition has a 20th-century two-light casement at first floor and a 20th-century inserted door at ground floor. The left gable end has the masonry stepped back at first floor level, with granite quoins only at ground floor level. The right gable end has an external stepped stack with oven at the base and a 20th-century two-light window with segmental arch at ground floor. At the rear, all windows are 20th-century, with a straight joint to the left addition. There are three windows at first floor and three at ground floor, all two-light casements with segmental arches. The second from left and second from right have 20th-century glazed doors. At first floor, the window to the right has a granite roll-moulded recessed surround with the stooling for a mullion, formerly a two-light window. The left addition has a two-light casement at ground and first floor.

The interior shows the passage and room to the right now open as one space with a 20th-century inserted stair. The ceiling has three heavy moulded beams with roll-mouldings. The fireplace is inserted with a stone surround removed from the courtyard, bearing a carved inscription: Edward and St Petroc. The room to the left is at a lower floor level and has three chamfered beams. The fireplace features a granite basket arch and recessed spandrels, removed from the first floor room to the left, with deep splayed reveals to the window. The doorway to the stair tower (now a closet) is narrow with a wooden chamfered surround and four-centred arch. At first floor to the right, four bays of the wagon roof over the hall survive, with carved ribs, wall-plate and carved bosses, with cross braces between the ribs, painted in the 20th century. A stud partition divides the front first floor chamber. This room has a wooden chamfered doorway with four-centred arch to the former stair at the front. In the front bay window is stained glass of the early 16th century, comprising a shield with arms, three fishes, and initials.