Treforda

Treforda is a farmhouse of mid to late 16th-century origin, possibly with earlier roots, situated in Trevalga. The building was extended in the early 17th century and again in the mid to late 19th century. It is constructed of slate stone rubble beneath a slate roof with gable ends.

The house displays a complex plan that evolved over several centuries. The original structure likely comprised two or more rooms with a through passage, featuring a single-storey open hall on the left and a probably two-storey lower end on the right. The hall, which retains its single-storey height, remained open to the roof until the early 1980s when an inserted ceiling was added, now preventing access to the roof structure and making it impossible to confirm evidence of earlier smoke blackening from an open hearth. The rear wall of the hall is lit by an original two-light window with deeply splayed interior reveals, and there is a shallow projection of uncertain purpose adjoining it, which may have once housed a rear lateral stack, though this seems unlikely given the presence of an axial fireplace at the lower end of the hall. A single-storey hall bay projection projects from the front wall.

In the early to mid 17th century, a further room was added to the higher left-hand gable end of the hall. The thick wall between the hall and this inner room continues to the apex, forming the gable end of the higher two-storey range on the left. The inner room was heated by an internal axial stack, and the first floor chamber is accessed by a stone stair to the right-hand side of the fireplace, of which the upper stage has been replaced with open timber treads. The inner room was originally lit by a blocked one-light window visible on the interior. A two-storey porch was added to the front of the through passage, probably in the 17th century. In the 19th century, a stair was inserted to the rear of the passage. A lean-to outshot was added to the front of the hall between the hall bay projection and the two-storey porch in the late 18th or early 19th century. In the mid to late 19th century, a further two-storey extension of single-room plan was added to the lower right-hand end, heated by an end stack. In the 20th century, the hall was divided by a partition with a corridor running across the front of the house.

The exterior presents two two-storey ranges flanking the single-storey hall range with a two-storey porch near the centre, creating an asymmetrical five-window front. The two-storey inner room on the left has been extended with an outbuilding now used as a garage. The inner room features a blocked door opening with a 20th-century window inserted and a 19th-century six-pane window above. The single-storey hall range displays a three-light mullion window in the bay projection on the left and the late 18th or early 19th-century outshot with lean-to roof adjoining to the right. The gabled two-storey porch has a chamfered granite surround to the entrance with a straight joint to the left indicating part rebuilding, and a 19th-century six-pane window above. The lower end on the right has a three-light mullion window on the ground floor and a 19th-century two-light casement above. The 19th-century extension on the right displays a plank door and wide window opening to the right with 20th-century fenestration, together with two four-pane sashes on the first floor.

The interior retains several features of note. A 19th-century framed stair rises to the rear of the through passage. A blocked rear opening of the passage is visible from within the outshot to the rear. The hall bay projection was also lit by a small one-light window on the higher side, visible from the interior. The lower end, originally heated by a gable end stack, contains an early 17th-century granite fireplace with chamfered lintel and jambs, probably with pyramid stops, though this has been partly remodelled in the 20th century. The ceiling beams are roughly chamfered with stops buried in the wall. A 19th-century fireplace is present in the extension on the right-hand lower end.

The roof structure above the inner room comprises two bays with a circa 18th-century truss, halved, lapped, crossed and pegged at the apex with collar lapped and pegged onto the face of principals. Above the porch, passage and lower room is a circa late 19th-century roof, with a single truss above the porch and three trusses above the passage and lower room bolted at the apices. An earlier truss may survive as a closed truss in the partition above the lower side of the passage. The roof structure above the hall was inaccessible at the time of inspection.