Restormel Farmhouse, with Attached Stables and Barn

Restormel Farmhouse with Attached Stables and Barn

This is a farmhouse with attached stables and barn complex that developed over more than a century. The earliest structure is the barn, dating from the early to mid-18th century. A stable range was added to the rear, probably in the late 18th or early 19th century. The farmhouse itself, which occupies the rear end of the complex and was formerly a pair of adjoining cottages, dates from the late 19th century. The complex has undergone some later alterations.

The Barn

The barn is built of brick with slatestone rubble walls to the rear and granite dressings throughout. It has a hipped slate roof with ridge coping tiles. The barn is planned as a U-shape with shallow wings to the front right and left. At ground floor level is a cowhouse, with a loft above that is accessed at upper level from the rear. A rubble outhouse is attached to the front right, and a range of rubble stables runs along the rear to the right.

The front of the barn features a later single-storey brick lean-to with a corrugated asbestos roof and two doors. At upper level are large segmental-headed loading doors to the right and left—the one to the right is blind with a smaller window opening nearby. Narrow blind windows flank each loading door, with brick voussoirs, and three similar blind windows appear in the central bays. A brick modillion cornice runs along this elevation.

The left side of the barn has a large segmental-headed doorway at both ground and loft levels. At ground floor there is a narrow blocked door to the right and a narrow opening to the left. The first floor has one blind window to the left and two to the right. Granite quoins mark the left side, with the modillion cornice continuing along this elevation.

On the right side, a granite plinth and granite quoins appear, with a brick lean-to to the left. A wide segmental-arched cart entry and a narrow round-arched doorway to the left provide access. The upper level features pigeonholes with blind windows between them, a segmental-arched loading door, and further blind windows and pigeonholes to the right.

The rear wall shows a brick outshut at upper level and a gabled midstrey with double doors to the right. The inner rear wall is built in slatestone rubble.

Inside the barn, at ground floor level, an arcade of round brick arches divides the space laterally. In the loft to the rear are two segmental arched openings. The roof is constructed with six bays of principal rafters, tie beams, and crown-posts. Recesses lie behind the blind windows. The barn is unusual and architecturally significant for being built in brick rather than traditional stone, and for its distinctive architectural treatment throughout.

The Stables

A single-storey rubble building with a corrugated asbestos roof is attached to the front right of the barn. Attached to the rear right is a two-storey stable range, built into the slope of the ground with access at loft level from the rear. This has a concrete tiled roof and shows evidence of two separate builds, marked by a straight joint in the walls.

The first range has two doors and a central window with granite lintels, and two loading doors positioned under the eaves. The end range has two doors and three windows arranged symmetrically, with brick segmental heads, along with three windows and a loading door under the eaves. A gable-ended block at the end right has 20th-century double doors at ground floor and a 20th-century two-light casement at upper level in a rendered gable end. The rear of this range has two doors and one window.

The Farmhouse

The farmhouse comprises two adjoining cottages at the rear end of the complex. The structure is built of slatestone rubble with brick dressings and a concrete tiled roof with brick stacks.

The left cottage is two storeys with three windows. It has a ground floor central glazed door, and a three-light casement with a brick segmental head to the right and left. Three two-light casements sit under the eaves in brick surrounds. Further two bays extend to the end right, also with granite quoins at the right end and a hipped roof at the right end. A door to the left and two two-light casements to the right—all with brick segmental heads—are accompanied by two two-light casements under the eaves. The rear of the house has 20th-century casements and a single-storey addition to the rear right of the first cottage.

The right cottage is of a two-room plan. One room is heated by a gable-end stack, with central entrance to a passage. The other cottage has a two-room plan with the entrance directly into the room to the left, both rooms heated by a ridge stack.

The two cottages are divided by granite quoins to the first cottage on the left.

The interior of both the stables and farmhouse were not inspected at the time of listing. The barn remains the principal feature of this group of buildings and is notable for its unusual brick construction and distinctive architectural treatment.