The Manor Office

The Manor Office, originally Trelawney House and formerly The Rookery, is a house built circa 1775, likely by John Wood the Younger for John Blewett. It is a building of group value, distinguished by its architectural quality and historical significance.

The building is constructed of granite ashlar with a scantle slate pyramidal roof, topped by a late 19th-century penthouse or nursery. It features an embattled parapet where the chimney flues terminate within the merlons over the side walls. The plan is a double-depth layout, with a large central entrance hall behind the porch, a large stair hall behind, principle reception rooms to the left (a large room at the front linked by a wide doorway to a smaller room behind), and a small parlour to the right, with a service stair behind and a probably original kitchen behind the stair. The architectural style is classical, incorporating some Gothic details.

The symmetrical south-west front has three windows arranged as a 1:1:1 bay, with a central doorway. Pilasters flank the front, with the central bay projecting forward. Features include a plinth, keyed flat arches, mid-floor bands, glyphs to the pilaster capitals, and a Gothic style arcade under a moulded cornice to the embattled parapet. The windows are circa late 19th-century horned sashes in original openings. The porch has paired Tuscan pilasters flanking the central doorway, which is approached via granite steps. It has a pair of double doors with fielded panels and overlight, and a cornice with complex moulding and a chevron-headed parapet. The rear elevation has three-light windows to the stair.

Internally, much of the original 18th-century carpentry, joinery, and architectural features remain, including fine plasterwork. A prominent open-well open-string stair rises through three floors, with a moulded mahogany handrail ramped at the turns and wreathed over the newel, and fluted stick balusters on plinths. Original doors with fielded panels are also present. There is late Rococo plasterwork with arabesques and swagged friezes under egg and dart cornices. The doorway between the left-hand rooms is flanked by engaged Corinthian columns with scrolled open pediments. The front room on the left features a fine marble chimneypiece.

A raised walk runs along the front of the house, featuring a wide central stair with acorn finials above plinth balustrades, and stairs at either end. Low pierced balustrades between short granite posts with moulded caps flank the porch.

The house is said to be modeled on Tregenna Castle in St Ives and is of comparable date to The Old Manor House in Fore Street and Acton Castle in Perranuthnoe. Following the death of John Blewett in 1774, the house passed to his son, and was later owned by Theopholis Code, who lost a substantial fortune of £100,000 by 1868.