Lower Manaton

Lower Manaton is a mansion house, now a private residence, rebuilt in 1687 by Francis Manaton, as indicated by a datestone reading "FM 1687". The house is constructed of stone rubble, with the south front rendered. It has a slate roof with hipped ends to the left and a projecting wing on the right, alongside two further hipped rear wings. A rendered brick axial stack sits at the lower end on the left, while another is located between the hall and the front projecting cross wing.

The original plan has been altered and remodelled around the 18th and 19th centuries. The main range features a three-room and cross-passage layout, with a projecting contemporary cross wing on the south-east side, replacing the original inner room. A wide cross passage now incorporates stairs, and the cross wing was later used as a barn. Two shallow projecting wings extend from the rear of the hall and the lower end, with a single-storey lean-to between them which formerly housed a dairy. A single-storey porch is positioned at the front of the passage.

The house is two storeys high and has a regular four-window front. The ground floor includes a moulded granite plinth which continues along the front and projecting wing. Late 19th and 20th century two-light casement windows are to the left of the porch, with 20th-century French windows positioned to the right. The porch itself is constructed of stone rubble with a slate roof and gable end, and prominently features a reset granite arch from West Coomstead in Stoke Climsland. The arch has initials “F C” and the date 1663, a quatrefoil in the apex possibly representing the arms of the Clark family, and includes hollow chamfered jambs, a ball-stop, and reset granite jambs, cill, and lintel of a small mullion window that came from a partly demolished barn. A reset stone quatrefoil, originally from the garden, is on the left-hand side wall of the porch. The inner door also possesses a segmental granite arch from West Coomstead.

The first floor has four late 19th and 20th century three-light casements. The projecting right-hand wing incorporates a two-light granite mullion window with the datestone "F M 16 87". A third granite arch from West Coomstead has been reset in the rear porch on the north-east side.

Internally, later chimney pieces are present, alongside 18th-century six-panelled doors on the first floor and wide, moulded doorcases on the ground floor. Originally, there were four fish ponds in the valley below the house, one of which still survives. A field above the house, known as "the warren", is enclosed by stone walls constructed of vertically laid slates, with horizontally laid slates at the top, projecting to prevent rabbits from jumping over and containing them within the enclosure. The site of the original mansion of Manaton was documented in a survey of Cornwall in 1602, and Sampson Manaton died in the old mansion house in 1637. Ambrose Manaton, his eldest son, entertained King Charles I at Trecarrel in Lezant.