Pennellick Farmhouse

Pennellick Farmhouse

A house of late 14th or early 15th-century origin, substantially remodelled in the 17th century, with further modifications and extensions in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building is Grade II* listed and represents one of the earliest and finest roofs in Cornwall, indicating this was an important house at the turn of the 14th century.

The front range is constructed of stone rubble with a slate-hung rear and rendered extensions. The front has a slate roof, gable-ended to the left and hipped to the right. A two-storey entrance porch with gabled slate roof projects from the left. The rear wing and a small 20th-century extension have asbestos slate roofs. A stone front lateral (hall) stack with tapering top stands just right of the porch. A truncated projecting stone gable stack sits at the right end, with a 20th-century rendered stack at the left gable end. The rear wing has a rendered squat 17th-century stack with tapered and extended top on the ridge and a 19th-century brick stack at the far end.

The original late 14th or early 15th-century plan appears to have comprised a three-bay open hall entered at the existing porch position, implying a three-or-more-roomed cross passage plan with a lower end (now demolished) to the left and an inner room or parlour to the right or on the site of the existing rear wing. Alternatively, an inner room may have originally been divided from the hall only by a low partition. A short stub of wall projecting from the gable may possibly indicate further accommodation at some period.

During the 17th century, the hall was floored, the hall stack and porch were built, and a rear wing was added, possibly to accommodate a kitchen after the loss of the original service end. Further adaptations were made in the second half of the 19th century, including the installation of partitions, closing of the porch to form a dairy, and extension of the rear wing. A small addition was made at the left-hand end in the 20th century.

The two-storey gabled porch projects from the far left end. The entrance sits under a chamfered timber lintel with run-out stops, now blocked with a two-light casement window, all beneath a continuous slate string course. Above is a two-light 19th-century casement of eight panes per light under a chamfered timber lintel with a wider slate drip. Immediately to the right in the angle with the porch is the projecting lateral hall stack, which reduces with a drip course near eaves level. A small oven projection is built against the right side of the stack. Beyond this is a ground-floor window under a chamfered timber lintel with run-out stops and a 19th-century four-pane sash window. Above this is a slightly offset 19th-century four-pane sash window.

The rear elevation of the front range has an irregular disposition. On the ground floor to the left is a large three-light timber casement and to the right a similar two-light casement. On the first floor is a small 19th-century two-light casement of six panes per light and to the right a larger 19th-century two-light casement of eight panes per light.

The front of the rear wing has a three-light timber casement window and a 19th-century four-pane sash to the ground floor, with a small two-light timber casement between them above for the 17th-century portion.

The porch is now used as a dairy, but an inner chamfered and shouldered timber doorframe survives, though the head has been removed. The hall ceiling has cross beams with chamfers and run-out stops and circa late 19th-century joists. A fireplace probably exists behind a 19th- or 20th-century surround. The original hall plan is now divided by a timber partition to form a room beyond with a plastered ceiling, possibly dating to the 18th or 19th century (though a possible early low partition is noted in the hall plan). A fireplace is probably concealed by a 19th- or 20th-century surround, with an 18th-century alcove cupboard suggesting parlour use at that date. A 16th- or 17th-century three-centred arched chamfered timber doorframe under a chamfered lintel leads into the back wing. A thick gable chimney breast indicates a 17th-century kitchen fireplace behind a 19th- or 20th-century surround with plastered ceiling.

The roof of the front range is exceptional and early, comprising three bays, all smoke-blackened. Embedded in the present low end gable wall is a portion of a blackened collar with partially concealed indications of jointing, surviving from the low end closed truss. Two open trusses are preserved beneath a late 19th-century roof. They feature thick raised arch-braced cruck principals and slowly cranked collars fixed at each joint by a single large peg. The principals reduce above the collar to open mortices intended to carry upper lengths of slighter scantling, now missing. The collars and principals form seatings for large clasped square-set purlins, now missing. This connection was strengthened by short queen struts jointed into one face of the collars; only the dovetailed lap mortice of this arrangement remains. There is no indication of whether the slighter upper principals supported any form of ridge. All common rafters are gone, but mortices for a single rank of windbraces are visible.

A fine pegged roof of four clean trusses survives over the 17th-century wing. The principal rafters have curved feet and are chamfered. The apices have halving joints and a diagonal-set ridge. Cambered collars have halved and lapped joints. Purlins are slightly trenched. The porch roof is of similar date.

The roof at Pennellick is one of the earliest in Cornwall, and its quality indicates that this was an important house at the turn of the 14th century.