Withiel House and Outbuildings Attached to Rear

Withiel House and Outbuildings

A rectory, now a house, dating from circa 1815 but incorporating some earlier materials, with later alterations and additions including some 20th-century work. The building comprises a main house with attached service wing and outbuildings arranged around a rear yard.

The exterior is constructed with granite ashlar to the front and sides, and slatestone rubble elsewhere. The roof is hipped with slate tiles, deep eaves, and crested ridge tiles. Axial stacks have ashlar shafts and cornices. The rear is partly slate-hung.

The building is two storeys with a symmetrical three-window front elevation. It stands on a plinth with a band course and rusticated quoins. The first floor windows are 12-pane sashes with cambered stone arches, keystones, and external shutters. The ground floor originally had matching windows, though these have been replaced with 20th-century glazing while retaining the stone surrounds and shutters. A painted Doric portico with cornice marks the central entrance, featuring an inner round-arched doorway with recessed arch and half-glazed double doors with fanlight.

The right side has three 20-pane sashes at both ground and first floor levels, all with cambered stone arches and keystones. The left side has three 20th-century windows at ground floor and three 12-pane sashes at first floor in similar stone surrounds.

The rear wing to the left is two storeys with three lateral ashlar stacks. It contains a 12-pane sash lighting the service stair, ground floor windows of four and twelve panes with cambered arches and keystones, and first floor windows of four and twelve panes. The rear of this wing is slate-hung with a hipped roof and 12-pane sashes at both levels. A return wing attached to the left is also slate-hung with matching sashes, and features a 28-pane sash at ground floor with a lean-to at the end. Facing the service yard, the right side has 20th-century garage doors with a 16-pane sash above.

The service yard is enclosed by a sandstone rubble wall with a doorway featuring a brick segmental arch. Within the service yard, the rear of the main house displays a round-arched 15-pane sash lighting the stair with splayed glazing bars. An inset stone shield of arms carved with a hand and lion is visible, with steps leading down to a cellar door. The inner side of the service wing is rendered and lined out with random fenestration. A rubble screen wall extends approximately 25 metres along the right side, about 4 metres high at the front tapering to about 2 metres at the rear, with lean-to structures attached to its rear.

The double-depth plan has a central entrance hall with principal rooms to the front left and right. A stair hall occupies the rear centre with a principal room to the rear right. The rear left accommodates a service wing of three rooms, returning to the rear to enclose the service yard.

The entrance hall features round-arched niches and a stone-paved floor. The rear stair hall also has a stone-paved floor with an open-well stair set on a curve, stick balusters, and a wreathed handrail. The rooms to front and rear left are now united as one room; the rear room retains a circa 1815 marble chimneypiece. The room to front right has a 19th-century marble chimneypiece and plain cornice. All ground-floor doors are six-panelled.