Merthen

Merthen is a manor house dated 1575, though it may be earlier. The building was altered in the early to mid 19th century and again in the 20th century. It is constructed of cement-washed shale rubble with granite dressings, partly roughcast at the rear. The roof is grouted scantle slate, replaced with asbestos on the rear slope, with red clay ridge tiles and some old crested ridge tiles reused over an adjoining cartshed. The main range roof is gable-ended to the right and half-hipped to the left, with the rear wing gable-ended.

The house has a dressed granite lateral stack at the front of the right-hand end with a moulded cap, and a roughcast brick axial stack towards the left end and over the rear wing. The plan is basically L-shaped. The main north-west range has a single-depth 3-room plan with the ground at the left end being lower. Between the right-hand room and the centre room is a large 2-storey porch serving the entrance to the former through passage. The room to the right of the entrance is the hall, heated from a lateral stack at the front with a chamber above, though it may originally have been open to the roof. The room to the left of the former passage was probably the parlour, and there is a third room at the extreme left end heated from a shared axial stack with back-to-back fireplaces. This stack appears to be a later brick insertion, but the long 3-room plan wing at the rear of the left end room may be integral and was probably a service wing. Another wing apparently returned at the end of the rear wing to form a rear courtyard, but has been demolished. There may also originally have been a forecourt. Mid-16th-century depictions show Merthen with towers, and Leland in 1538 described it as a "ruinous manor place", so the 1575 date on the porch may refer to reduction and remodelling rather than complete rebuilding by John Reskymer. In the early to mid 19th century the house was remodelled again; the rear left-hand wing was raised and remodelled to become a new garden front facing north with access from the old entrance passage via a corridor created behind the former parlour. The early to mid 19th-century main staircase may have been situated in the square tower in the inner angle with the rear wing. In the 20th century the partition on the higher right side of the passage was moved to the right, reducing the old hall and creating a wide stairhall; a single-storey wing was built behind the new stair hall and hall, and the range along the back of the courtyard was demolished.

The building is 2-storeys with a long asymmetrical 4-window north-west front. To the right of centre is a large 2-storey hipped-roof porch with a hollow-chamfered 4-centred arch granite doorway with stylised fern-leaf spandrels and a moulded label with quatrefoil stops. Over the doorway are the Reskymer arms (Reskymer impaling St Aubyn) in Beerstone with the date 1575, now defaced, and above that a 3-light hollow-chamfered granite mullion window. To the right of the porch the hall stack is flush with the front wall. To the right of the stack the hall window and the window to the chamber above in a small gable are both 4-lights with hollow-chamfered mullions and a king mullion. At the left lower end windows are symmetrically disposed towards the right; the front wall immediately to the left of the porch and the lower left end is blank without windows. The windows are 3-light hollow-chamfered granite mullion windows; the ground floor has hoodmoulds, the lintel of the left-hand ground floor window appears to have been raised, and the first floor right-hand window has flat chamfered mullions and jambs and may be an insertion to give symmetry to this part of the house.

The rear south-east elevation is much altered but retains its old hall window to the left, similar to that at the front, and a small circa early 18th-century 6-pane casement above. The other windows are asymmetrically arranged with 20th-century casements. To the left of centre the single-storey 20th-century wing has a hipped roof. To the right the long rear wing has a hipped-roof addition in the angle which may have been a stair tower; in the angle is another small 20th-century addition and a 20th-century porch. At the end of the wing is a single-storey open-ended cart-shed with a half-hipped scantle slate roof with some old reused crested ridge-tiles.

The north-east elevation (outer side) of the rear wing has early to mid 19th-century fenestration of three 2-storey hipped-roof canted bays with 8:12:8 pane sashes, except for the right-hand first floor which has a 6:9:6 pane arrangement. Between the centre and left-hand bay is a doorway with a 20th-century door and overlight and an early to mid 19th-century 16-pane sash above.

The interior has been much altered, probably in the early to mid 19th century and again in the 20th century. The 20th-century interior alterations are very extensive and the only exposed feature to have survived apart from the roof structure is the hall fireplace, which has a granite lintel with its soffit cut away leaving only a short section of chamfer, and jambs that have also been rebuilt. There is a mid-19th-century Devon marble chimney-piece in the lower end room and one early to mid 19th-century moulded doorcase at this end.

The roof structure shows three trusses at the lower end of the hall with notched or dovetail halvings for lap-jointed collars which are missing; one reused principal has a mortice for the collar and all three trusses have mortices in the principals for threaded purlins. The truss over the porch is similar but has trenched purlins. The principals have straight feet. The two later trusses over the higher end of the hall have collars lapped and pegged to the face of the principals. The lower left end roof is similar, but the collars are halved and lapped to the face of the principals and the purlins slightly trenched.

Historically, Merthen has been held by the Vyvyans of Trelowarren since the 17th century, but was formerly the seat of the Reskymers. In the 11th century it was part of the manor of Winnianton and therefore not mentioned in the Domesday Book, being held by the Crown. In 1225 Henry III gave Winnianton to his brother Richard, Earl of Cornwall, who exchanged it with Gervase de Tintagel for Tintagel Castle. In the early 15th century Merthen eventually passed to Ralph Reskymer. It is generally thought that John Reskymer and his wife Grace built the present house in 1575 because of their arms over the entrance, but this may refer to a remodelling of that time. John Reskymer died in 1617 and Grace in 1627. In 1629 Merthen was sold to Sir Francis Vyvyan of Trelowarren.