Rosteague House And Stable Block

Rosteague House and Stable Block

This country house and stable block has origins in the 15th and 16th centuries, substantially remodelled around 1700 and extended in 1820 for Henry Harris. The stable block was probably built in the mid-19th century.

The main house comprises slatestone rubble walls with granite dressings to the wings. The roofs are scantle slate hipped, retaining many crested ridge tiles from the 17th and 18th centuries. There are brick axial chimneys and a tall lateral stone stack to the rear and north elevation.

The building evolved through several phases of extension. The original range was extended with a wing to the right, and a small chapel (first mentioned in 1401) was built to the north of the main range. A further wing was probably added in the 17th century to the rear (south), followed by another wing to the front left in 1820. An L-shaped stable block forms a rectangular rear courtyard.

The east front is symmetrical with two storeys and five windows, flanked by identical wings two bays deep and one bay wide. A central six-panel door with a roundel in the overlight is set between flat slatestone ground floor arches to the main block. The wings have shallow granite arches with projecting keys at ground floor level and granite quoins. The windows are 19th-century twelve-pane sashes.

The rear elevation features an outer granite frame and hoodmould around a three-light mullioned window to the left, now converted to a tripartite sash. A relieving arch beneath the left jamb leads to a cellar, now inaccessible. Above is a wide 19th-century three-light wooden mullioned window with sash and timber lintel. To the right, a joint marks the position of an early newel stair recess that survives internally. A two-storey projection of 16th or 17th-century date, remodelled in the 19th century, contains what may have been the original doorway (possibly later moved to Saint Nun's Well nearby). An external stack with tall shaft stands to the right, and openings at first floor level nearby retain 17th-century ovolo-moulded lintels, copies of which appear on ground floor openings and in the rear wing.

The cobbled courtyard is surrounded by the L-shaped arrangement. The north gable end of the chapel retains a hollow chamfered two-light granite mullioned window. A similar window on the north wall of the main range is partly blocked by an early 18th-century flight of semi-circular granite steps.

The interior contains a chamfered pointed doorway of Pentewan stone between the hall and kitchen. The earliest walling survives in the kitchen, which has an enormous hearth breast serving several flues, with a large stone chimney visible in the roof space and evidence for a lower original roof level in this part.

Around 1700, a plaster ceiling cornice was added in the hall, first floor passage, and in association with a fine torus-moulded plaster ceiling in the parlour, decorated with an oval bay leaf and oak leaf garland. The parlour also retains complete bolection-moulded panelling except at the fireplace, which has 16th-century granite jambs and lintel all resited with roll moulding between cavettos. A further granite fireplace of 16th or 17th-century date with chamfered sides and pyramid stops stands in the north-west room adjoining the chapel. The hall contains many two-panel and three-panel doors dating from around 1700, retaining original HL hinges. A late 18th-century marble fireplace in the hall is a 20th-century insertion. First floor rooms were not inspected.

The roof structure of the main range dates from around 1700 and features lapped and pegged pine collars and principals, though two late 17th-century doors with shallow moulded stiles and rails survive at the north end. The roof structure of the wings, comprising king post trusses, is probably contemporary with the 1820 extension.

The partly converted stable block is constructed of slatestone with shallow brick arches to the openings and Delabole slate hipped roofs, which are dry.

Rosteague has documented historical significance. A deed relating to Trewithian was witnessed by John Restack in 1365. In 1401, John Petit and his wife Mary were licensed to celebrate Divine service at their chapel at Resteak (an early form of the name). In the Gerrans subsidy rolls, John Rostack appears as the richest man in the parish, called Rostege in 1535 and Rosteke in 1543. The property was held by the Mohun family from around 1610 until sold to Nicholas Kempe in 1619. The Kempes subsequently sold Rosteague to W. Harris in 1780.