Manor Farm

Manor Farm, Camelford

A house, now divided into four separate dwellings with one used as offices. The building possibly dates from the late 16th century or earlier, with extensions added around the mid-17th century and parts rebuilt in the late 17th or early 18th century.

The main front elevation is constructed of stone rubble with granite dressings, rendered and painted, beneath a slate roof with gable ends and stone rubble end stacks. The lower left-hand wing has a slate roof with gable ends and stone rubble and brick end stacks. A mid-17th-century extension to the left-hand wing is rendered and painted with exposed granite dressings, topped by a higher slate roof with hipped ends, overhanging eaves with console brackets, and front and rear lateral stacks. The rear lateral stack projects with granite quoins and a brick shaft. The rear right-hand wing is of stone rubble, though its front wall was rebuilt in the early to mid-20th century; it has a slate roof with gable ends and end stacks. A mid-17th-century extension to the right-hand wing is constructed of stone rubble and has an asbestos slate roof with gable ends and a front lateral stack.

The plan has been considerably altered and its original arrangement is uncertain. The building may originally have had a courtyard plan, with a front range of two rooms arranged in single depth, probably with a central through passage, and rear wings to the right and left, also of two rooms in single depth. Around the mid-17th century, the rear left-hand wing was probably extended with a cross wing of two-room plan, heated by front and rear lateral stacks, and the rear right-hand wing extended with a range of one room heated by a front lateral stack. In the late 17th or early 18th century, the front range was largely rebuilt on the earlier cellar, which retains mullion windows. This rebuilt range retained a two-room arrangement with a central cross passage, heated by end stacks, and had a late 17th or early 18th-century stair added in an outshot across the rear, with a service stair in the left-hand wing. Probably contemporary with these alterations, the mid-17th-century cross wing to the rear of the rear left-hand wing was partly remodelled. Around the mid-19th century, the extension to the rear right-hand wing was remodelled, and in the mid-20th century the right-hand wing was partly remodelled and the front wall probably rebuilt. In the mid to late 20th century, the interior of the rear left-hand wing was remodelled.

The front elevation rises two storeys over a basement and displays a symmetrical composition of five windows. It features painted quoins and strings with deep overhanging eaves. The basement contains two two-light mullion windows. At ground floor level, granite steps lead to an entrance door with 20th-century glazing and two raised and fielded panels. To the right and left are two 19th-century twelve-pane sashes with exposed dressed stone segmental arches. Five 19th-century twelve-pane sashes appear on the first floor.

The rear left-hand wing rises two storeys and has an asymmetrical three-window front with sashes. The higher cross wing to the rear has front and rear lateral stacks and renewed sash windows. The rear right-hand wing has a 2:1 asymmetrical front with 20th-century three-light metal window frames and a tripartite sash in the rear gable end.

The interior of the front range retains much of its late 17th to early 18th-century character. A moulded plaster cornice in the hall passage and right-hand room suggests the entrance may have originally opened directly into the large right-hand room, with the partition added later, though the plaster cornices have been partly restored. The left-hand room retains bolection moulded panelling and a high-quality plaster ceiling with torus moulded ribs of a similar pattern to those surrounding the wall panelling. The central oval panel is decorated with a floral trail and central rose; the outer panels were probably remodelled in the mid-18th century with rococo motifs. An open string stair features a ramped deep moulded rail, turned balusters on square bases, and newels comprising clusters of four balusters on a single square base. A back stair to the rear left has square newels, closed string, deep rail, and turned balusters. A moulded cornice appears in the bedroom, and several 18th-century two-panel doors survive. The roof structure comprises six trusses; the front blades probably reused from the earlier building with pronounced curved feet and morticed apices, while the rear blades were raised to accommodate the lean-to outshot containing the stair. Later lap-jointed and pegged collars support butt purlins.

The rear left-hand wing was remodelled in the 20th century. The rear right-hand wing was remodelled in the late 19th century and contains a chimneypiece in the centre room, possibly of late 19th-century date, which reuses some 17th-century material. It comprises carved timber with raised panels, moulded cornice, fluted pilasters, and key motifs. The roof structure of the rear right-hand wing was not inspected.