Tregunnick Farmhouse

Tregunnick Farmhouse, St Germans

A farmhouse probably dating from the late 15th to early 16th century, substantially altered over subsequent centuries. The building is constructed of slatestone rubble with granite dressings, with roughcast to the rear and a slurred slate hipped roof with brick chimney shafts.

The house originally followed a three-room and through-passage plan with the lower end room to the right, the hall to the left, and an inner room at the left end. The hall was likely originally open but was floored and re-roofed around the late 16th century, when a stair tower was added to the rear right of the passage. An early 17th-century porch was added to the front of the passage, featuring a four-centred arched granite doorway with hollow-chamfered moulding, recessed spandrels with roundels and a square hood mould. The porch interior retains a plaster ceiling and slate floor. The inner doorway is also in granite with a three-centred arch, roll-moulded, with recessed spandrels and roll-moulded surround but no hood mould.

The left end of the house appears originally to have been three storeys tall, possibly with a stair along the outer wall, where the windows are notably stepped. A doorframe at second-floor level survives in the roof at this end. Around the mid-18th century, significant internal reorganisation occurred: the lower end room became a parlour; the inner room at the left end was partitioned to form a dairy to the rear with a secondary lateral stair; and a kitchen was built to the front of the left end room with a lean-to roof and front stack. The right end wall was rebuilt at this time and a front lateral stack added. The hall has always been separated from the passage by a screen, now of late 19th-century date, though the roof is continuous over both spaces.

The exterior is asymmetrical, presenting two storeys. Above the 17th-century porch is a 19th-century two-light six-pane casement. The lower end room to the right has a single narrow 19th-century light at ground floor and a 16-pane sash at first floor. The front lateral stack projects slightly, with a blocked doorway to the right with lintel remaining. The ground floor hall window comprises three lights in granite, chamfered, with stoolings for mullions, hood mould and remains of a slate string course above. At first floor are a three-light and two-light casement, both 19th-century with L hinges. A 20th-century glazed porch stands between the main porch and the kitchen wing. The kitchen wing features a 20th-century window and door with brick surrounds and a rendered end stack. Within the kitchen, the formerly external main hall window survives blocked, in granite with four lights, a hollow-chamfered king mullion (other mullions removed), and remains of hood mould.

The left side of the building displays two two-light casements at ground floor lighting the dairy and larder. To the centre and right are two staggered-level windows, both two-light chamfered granite casements with hood moulds, the upper one to the right now blocked. At second-floor level to the centre, the remains of a similar window has been replaced by a six-pane light with granite cill. The right end wall is roughcast with 16-pane sashes at ground and first floors. A buttress to the rear of the lower end room was probably built in the mid-18th century at the time of the rebuilding of the lower end. A projecting wall at the rear of the lower end room is chamfered at the base, with a single light at the side and a 12-pane sash at first floor; its original function is unclear. A wide stair tower to the right features a 19th-century 12-pane sash at first floor to the rear and a small single light at the upper right side. The passage rear doorway is in granite with a chamfered four-centred arch with stops. Behind the hall is a large external stack with brick shaft, flanked at ground and first floors by 16-pane sashes (ground floor) and two-light casements (first floor), all probably 19th-century and of differing sizes. The rear of the end room to the right stands on a plinth with two-light casements at ground and first floors.

The interior retains much historical detail. The porch leads to a wide passage, now with a 19th-century wooden hall screen to the left and a solid wall to the right containing two granite doorways, both chamfered and stopped with four-centred arches—the rear doorway leads to the stair tower and the front to the lower end room. The lower end room, converted to a parlour, has a 20th-century fireplace to the front lateral stack. To the rear is a small room with slate floor and timber lintel, possibly originally a window. The stair tower contains a stone newel stair. The hall features a large granite fireplace with cambered arch and roll-moulding, similar to the front door. At the left end, a step up leads to a granite doorway to the inner room, chamfered with four-centred arch.

The inner room was partitioned around the mid-18th century. The dairy to the front retains a granite fireplace to the axial stack, with slate floor, slate shelves and a central slate table. Between the front and rear partitioned rooms runs a lateral passage with a straight stair in two flights. The rear larder has stud partition walls, though the rear wall of the dairy appears to be inserted masonry. The inner lintels to the doorways are timber, chamfered and stopped. At first floor, the lateral passage over the left end room leads to a rear lateral passage. This area was probably originally one large room over the hall and passage, heated at the left end by a granite fireplace from the axial stack—featuring a flat chamfered granite lintel with jambs bearing cushion-shaped stops—and at the right end with a 19th-century cast iron grate. The room over the dairy contains a door of two planks with strap hinges, set in a four-centred arched chamfered wooden frame, and retains a similar granite fireplace.

The roof displays exceptional carpentry. At first floor, the feet of two principal rafters are visible, slightly curved, chamfered and with run-out stops; others are boxed in. The roof comprises six bays with principal rafters halved and pegged, chamfered up to collar level. The collars are similarly chamfered with pronounced camber, also halved and pegged. Originally featuring two rows of threaded purlins, these have been replaced by trenched purlins. Walls are plastered to collar height. A doorframe survives in timber at second-floor level over the left end room, chamfered with four-centred arch, indicating a former second-floor room in that location.

This is an unusually large house whose original form is obscured by the substantial alterations to the end rooms at left and right. The surviving features, however, are of high quality, and the building retains significant architectural and historical interest.