Tretawn

Tretawn

This is a house dating from the late 16th century, built of rendered stone rubble with a rag slate roof. The front wall has been partly rebuilt in more recent times near its centre. The roof features a gable end on the left and gable ends to both a cross wing on the front right and a gabled 2-storey porch positioned to the right of centre. A brick end stack serves the inner room on the left, while a stone rubble rear lateral hall stack with moulded granite cap adjoins a brick stack serving the back kitchen in the rear outshut. A stone rubble axial stack with moulded granite cap heats the lower end and includes a fireplace backing onto the passage.

The plan's original arrangement is uncertain. The house comprises a 2-storey porch on the front to the right of centre, with a wide through passage and a hall to the left heated by the rear lateral stack. Beyond the hall lies an inner room, originally heated by the gable end stack. A framed stair dating from the early 19th century projects to the rear of the higher end of the hall, and a dairy was added in the wing to the rear of the inner room, also in the early 19th century. At the lower side of the passage, the arrangement has been altered; it probably originally comprised a service range in a cross wing, which extended to the rear where it was modified and converted into a dairy around the mid-19th century. When this conversion occurred, the roof was lowered and the large kitchen stack was removed. The small lower end room on the front is now heated by a 19th-century fireplace, probably inserted to back onto the passage, utilising the late 16th-century stack that originally served two back-to-back fireplaces in the chambers above. A newel stair, approached from the passage, projects into this front room. A kitchen range was added in a lean-to outshut to the rear of the hall and passage, probably around the mid-19th century.

The exterior presents two storeys and an attic with a regular 3:1:1 window arrangement on the front. A projecting 2-storey porch stands to the right of centre, and a slight projecting gable end belongs to the cross wing of the service range on the right. The 2-storey range on the left has a front wall partly rebuilt in the late 20th century. The ground floor features a 20th-century door in a window opening to the left and two 4-light mullion windows with central king mullions, hood-moulds and diagonal leaded glass lighting the hall to the right. The first floor has a late 19th-century 6-pane sash window, a 19th-century 16-pane sash and a late 19th-century 6-pane sash arranged in a 3-light mullioned window opening to the right. To the right of the porch is a 16-pane sash window in a larger, partly blocked opening with a hood-mould above. The first floor above the inner room features a 3-light mullioned window with early diagonal leaded glass. A blocked attic window with hood-mould sits above. The projecting 2-storey porch is notable for its segmental granite arch with hollow chamfer, ornate stepped and ogee stops and carved spandrels. The hood-mould is partly removed, and there is a later dressed stone segmental arch with key stone. Above the arch is a 3-light mullion window with hood-mould and 19th-century casements, with a blocked attic window and hood-mould above.

The interior contains a wide through passage with almost 3-centred granite arched entrances on both front and rear, featuring slightly hollowed chamfers and pyramid stops. A rear door dating from around 1700 has six raised and fielded panels and strap hinges. The hall to the left is noteworthy for a high-quality oak hall screen of approximately early 17th-century date. On the hall side, the panel frame of stiles, muntins and rails is scratch moulded, and the central entrance is flanked by incised pilasters. The frieze above is carved with stylised acanthus leaves, and the moulded cornice may have been added, projecting into the moulded plaster cornice which appears contemporary. The passage side of the screen is plainer with slightly raised panels. The door, although possibly contemporary, may have been modified and is undecorated on the hall side. On two sides of the hall, an early 17th-century plaster frieze remains intact with floral trail and moulded cornice. This cornice was removed on the front side, probably when the front wall was rebuilt, and is partly obscured by the cornice of the screen. The hall has a 20th-century chimney piece. A framed stair of probably early 19th-century date stands to the rear of the hall. The inner room features a chamfered granite fireplace. In the service range at the lower end is a 19th-century fireplace backing onto the passage, and in the dairy to the rear are approximately 17th-century chamfered ceiling beams with straight-cut stops, two salting kevers and slate slabs. The back kitchen in the outshut to the rear of the hall is heated by a fireplace which is back-to-back with the hall fireplace. Reset in the right-hand jamb is a piece of carved granite inscribed '1620 P M' (Phila Molesworth). The timber newel stair, approached from the lower side of the passage, has an ovolo-moulded doorframe; the stair was possibly once lit by a window, now blocked, which would have used borrowed light from the service range.

The chamber above the service range on the front has a granite fireplace with chamfered lintel and jambs with truncated pyramid stops, and probably features an original granite kerb and pentan to the rear. A door leading from the lower end chamber into the first floor of the porch has an approximately early 17th-century ovolo-moulded doorframe with elongated scroll stops and an original 6-panel door with scratch moulded framing. The two chambers above the hall and through passage also have granite fireplaces with chamfered lintels and jambs; one has pyramid stops and the other has scroll stops. The chamber above the inner room has a corbelled granite fireplace with chamfered lintel and jambs, now blocked, and the rear lateral stack that once served it has been removed.

The roof structure was probably replaced in approximately the mid to late 17th century. The 7-bay roof above the hall, inner room and through passage is divided from the lower end by a stone rubble wall which rises to the apex. Two trusses above the inner room and the wing to the rear were renewed in approximately the mid-20th century. The four trusses above the hall and passage have chamfered collars and have been partly halved, lapped and pegged onto the face of the principals, each with three timber pegs and splayed dovetailed-type joints. Two tiers of trenched purlins (renewed) and a renewed diagonal set ridge are present. A similar truss above the porch bears the inscription 'N Bray 1888' on the collar. Nicholas Bray was a local carpenter still remembered by elderly local inhabitants. The roof above the service range was replaced to the rear in approximately the late 19th century; the roof above the front range is inaccessible.

In 1438 Thomas Lanhergy received 6 shillings and 3 pence from Nicholas Colapyn for relief on the death of his father John Colapyn for the whole of the ville of Tretoun. By the 16th century Tretawn was in the possession of Francis Carnsew and in the late 16th century was brought by the Kestell family. It was later conveyed to John Molesworth of Pencarrow (as evidenced by the datestone '1620 PM' in the back kitchen). It subsequently came to John Godolphin, who sold Tretawn to William Keigwin of Moleshole in 1659.