Tregithew Farmhouse

Tregithew Farmhouse is a substantial farmhouse of 17th-century or earlier origin, substantially remodelled and partly rebuilt in 1726 for W.N., with further extensions by a rear wing and outshut added around the late 18th century.

The building is constructed of serpentine rubble and dressed serpentine with dressed granite jambstones and sills. The lintels are granite, incised to resemble voussoirs of flat arches on the 1726 rebuilt front. The roofs are scantle slate, sweeping lower over the rear outshut and hipped over the rear wing. A large 17th-century rubble chimney rises over the left-hand gable end, with two large granite ashlar chimneys of 1726 date positioned left of the middle and over the right-hand gable end.

The original plan before the 1726 refronting consisted of the typical three-room through-passage arrangement with lower end, hall, and inner room. The lower end and passage were then converted into two service rooms with kitchen on the left, while the hall and inner room became a living-room and parlour on the right. Evidence suggests the house had already been extended rightward by 1726, indicated by an altered 17th-century doorway left of the 1726 parlour. In 1726 a stair turret was added at the rear, right of middle, followed by a service wing to its right, and around the late 18th century a service outshut was constructed along the rear left and adjoining the rear wall of the stair turret.

The building is two storeys with a fairly regular six-window east-south-east front. The walling of the two left-hand bays up to first-floor sill level is 17th-century; the remainder of the front is mostly 1726 but incorporates an older doorway beneath the fourth window from the left on the first floor, with chamfered and straight stopped jambs and a lintel cut away except over the jambs, topped by an incised lintel of 1726. A twentieth-century glazed porch now surrounds the entrance. A datestone left of the doorway reads 1726.

Except for two circa early 19th-century sashes at ground-floor left, all windows—four to the ground floor and six to the first floor—are original 1726 12-pane sashes with very wide internally ovolo-moulded glazing bars and most retain original crown glass. The rear elevation features two particularly notable first-floor windows either side of the outshut, both circa late 18th century with horizontal wooden glazing bars and leaded panes. The left-hand window is set within the original 1726 stair turret but reduced in size; the right-hand window has one later-replaced light. A further similar complete window is positioned at the right-hand gable end. The left-hand gable end retains an original single-light chamfered 17th-century granite window.

The interior contains outstanding 1726 features. Two rooms are completely and unaltered: the parlour and the chamber above. The parlour is fully panelled with fielded panels, broken forward at panel intervals, with the moulded cornice also broken forward. The chimneypiece features eared bolection moulding with breaks in the entablature. Eight-panelled doors are present; those to the flanking cupboards have round heads. The chamber above possesses a bolection-moulded chimneypiece and a coved ceiling with moulded cornices on all four sides, with original doors and cupboards surviving. A further bolection-moulded chimneypiece appears in the next room.

A wide open-well closed-string stair features a heavy column, bobbin-turned balusters, moulded handrail, turned newel caps, a turned pendant beneath the landing newel, and a pulvinated string. Bowtell-moulded beams appear in the room to the left of the parlour, along with many other 18th-century features throughout the house. The roof structure was not inspected but must be predominantly of 1726 date.

This is a remarkable house preserving good features from each of its main periods of development, particularly notable for its 18th-century fenestration and the high-quality and innovative features of the parlour and principal chamber.