Penrose Farmhouse adjoining garden walls, gate piers, gate and outbuildings

Penrose Farmhouse, adjoining garden walls, gate-piers, gate and outbuildings

Manor farmhouse with adjoining garden walls, gate-piers, gate and adjoining outbuildings, located in Sennen. A house has occupied this site since the 14th century or earlier. The present building dates from the 16th and 17th centuries, with remodelling undertaken in the 18th and 19th centuries. A datestone of 1668 appears on the parlour fireplace lintel, inscribed with the arms of the Jones and Lamb families.

The building is constructed principally of granite rubble with granite dressings; some sections use granite ashlar. The roofs are covered with scantle slate. The house roof is U-shaped in plan with hipped corners where it returns at either end to gable-ended rear wings. Three large chimneys are present: a 17th-century stone chimney stands over the rear wall of the left-hand room (parlour); a 17th or 18th-century stone chimney rises over a cross wall towards the right; and a 19th-century brick chimney stands over an approximately central cross wall.

The plan originally comprised a much larger layout which has been reduced to a U-shaped plan with stables parallel at the rear of a rear courtyard. High walls flank the front garden, with remains of 17th-century buildings adjoining the left-hand garden wall. The main house is a four-room plan front range with a front axial passage separating the parlour on the left from a large, slightly deeper kitchen (now subdivided) with pantry at rear towards the right. The front doorway aligns with a rear doorway. Behind the passage lie a straight flight stair to the left and a smaller parlour. To the right of the kitchen are a pantry and a second stair. At right angles behind the left and right-hand sides of the house are single-room-plan service wings. The wing behind the parlour is accessible to the house only on the first floor. The other wing retains 16th or 17th-century plasterwork from when it served as a principal chamber on the first floor and preserves a 16th-century roof structure. The parlour contains the 1668 fireplace; in the roof space above, against the same wall, survives the end plaster and cornice of a former barrel ceiling, probably from what was the best chamber in the 17th century.

The 18th and 19th centuries saw considerable remodelling, including the rebuilding of much of the front wall, parts of the rear wall, and the left-hand side wall. Some reused 17th-century dressed granite masonry has been incorporated into this later work.

The exterior presents two storeys. The nearly symmetrical five-window east-north-east front features a doorway slightly left of centre. The right-hand windows are more widely spaced. A chamfered doorway holds a 19th-century four-panel door with a traceried overlight. Windows are circa early 19th-century sixteen-pane hornless sashes, except for a horned copy to the right of the doorway. In-situ 17th-century features include a chamfered doorway into the rear courtyard, a blocked three-light mullioned window in the rear wall of the kitchen bay, two round-headed doorways in walls to the left of the front garden, and the sill and jambstone of a former three-light mullioned window near the round-headed doorway in the front wall of the kitchen garden. Reused 17th and possibly earlier masonry includes the head of a three-light mullioned window in the left-hand wall of the left-hand rear wing.

Interior 16th-century features include an oak roof structure in the rear right-hand wing with threaded purlins (mostly in-situ), morticed straight collars and probably halved apices (only one side inspected), and possibly 16th-century plasterwork depicting an apple tree in the chamber beneath. 17th-century features comprise a granite lintel of the parlour fireplace (only partly visible), inscribed with a triangular central motif with domed boss, the date 1668 and the coats of arms of the Jones and Lamb families. Remains of a plaster ceiling survive in the roof space above. Some chamfered hardwood ceiling beams appear in the kitchen; beams in the rear right-hand wing are decorated with fleurs-de-lys (not currently visible) and possibly other concealed features. 18th-century features include some two-panel doors. 19th-century features comprise ceiling cornices in the parlours, panelled doors, and brass pelmets dated 1851 in the best parlour.

Adjoining the house are extensive walls with adjoining outbuildings. A 17th-century rear courtyard wall links the rear right-hand wing with stables and a cartshed parallel to the rear of the house. High 17th-century walls flank the front garden of the house. A circa early 19th-century low wall returns parallel to the front of the house. High walls surround a rectangular kitchen garden to the left of the house, with roofless lean-to piggeries and other outbuildings adjoining these walls. The walls flanking the front garden feature pigeon holes near the top. The stable at the rear incorporates 17th-century walls and some reused 17th-century masonry. The walls on the left of the front garden retain some 17th-century features in-situ. Of particular interest is a moulded socketed stone on the left-hand wall of the kitchen garden. This stone formerly held a flagstaff positioned so that it could be seen up the Penberth valley from the sea. The granite-coped front walls of the garden feature a gateway aligned with the doorway of the house. The gateway is flanked by granite monolithic piers and contains a good quality circa early-mid 19th-century wrought iron gate with a cast-iron balustrade over the top rail.

Historical Context

The Penroses are first recorded at Penrose in 1302. In the 16th century, a Penrose, known as the Squire, drowned whilst attempting to rescue members of his crew when his ship wrecked. His son and heir, whom he had rescued, was subsequently raised by the squire's brother, Jan. The son became unhappy and his relationship with his uncle deteriorated. During a wolf hunt, the boy disappeared and the uncle appeared distressed. Another uncle, Captain William Penrose, later discovered that Jan had paid to have the boy murdered, with the body buried beneath an apple tree. Realising he had been discovered, Jan Penrose went to the malt house in the north wing and hanged himself. The chamber in the north wing, formerly the squire's chamber, displays plasterwork featuring an apple tree, thought to have been executed to commemorate these tragic events. The room is said to be haunted.

In the 17th century, Penrose was held by the Jones family. Notable members included Francis Jones, who was fined in 1640 for supporting the Royalist cause, and Hugh Jones, born 1632 and mentioned by Norden, who was a tyrannous Justice of the Peace.