The Manor Office

MARAZION WEST END, Marazion SW 5130 4/90 The Manor Office originally Trelawney House, formerly The Rookery

GV II*

House including steps at the front. Built circa 1775 possibly by John Wood the younger for John Blewett. Granite ashlar walls. Scantle slate pyramidal roof surmounted by circa late C19 penthouse/nursery. Embattled parapet with the flues of the chimneys terminating within the merlons over the side walls. Plan: double depth plan: large central entrance hall behind porch with large stair hall behind, principal reception rooms on left with large room at the front linked by wide doorway to smaller room behind; small parlour right with service stair behind and probably original kitchen behind the stair. Classical style with some Gothic style details. Exterior : 2 storeys. Symmetrical 3 window 1:1:1 bay south west front with central doorway. Pilasters flanking the front, central bay broken forward. Plinth; keyed flat arches; mid-floor bands; glyphs to the pilaster capitals and Gothic style arcade under moulded cornice of the embattled parapet. Circa late C19 horned sashes in original openings. Porch: paired Tuscan pilasters flanking central doorway approached by granite steps, pair of double doors with fielded panels and overlight; cornice with breaks is similar to main cornice but with more complex moulding and chevron-headed parapet over. Rear has 3-light windows to the stair. Interior : most of the original C18 carpentry, joinery, architectural features including some fine plasterwork survive; open-well open-string stair (carried up through 3 floors) with moulded mahogany handrail ramped at the turns and wreathed over the newel, and fluted stick balusters on plinths; original doors with fielded panels; 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 pediment over. In the front room, left, is a fine marble chimneypiece. Along the front of the house is a raised walk with wide central stair with acorn finials above plinth balustrades and the stair at either end. Flanking-the porch is low pierced balustrade between short granite posts with moulded caps. Said to be modelled on Tregenna Castle qv, St Ives, by John Wood the younger. At the death of John Blewett in 1774 the house passed to John Blewett his son. Later owned by Theopholis Code, whose fortune of £100,000 was squandered by 1868. It is interesting to compare this house not only with Tregenna Castle, but also with The Old Manor House qv., Fore Street and Acton Castle qv., Perranuthnoe, all of about the same date. Historical information kindly supplied by David Howard.

Listing NGR: SW5173030793