Bodmin Keep

Bodmin Keep is a former military headquarters and stores building designed by Frederick William Porter between 1859 and 1861 for the Cornwall Rangers Militia. The building underwent alterations around 1881 and later modifications for the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, who occupied it until 1962. It now serves as a museum.

Construction and Materials

The Keep is constructed of coursed and squared local killas stone with local granite dressings. The roof is covered in 21st-century Argentinian 'Riverstone' slates with grey clay ridge tiles. Six red-brick chimney stacks topped with yellow terracotta pots punctuate the roofline.

Layout

The Keep is positioned on a south-west to north-east axis across the south-east end of a triangular site. The building has a rectangular plan with identical staircase towers on both the north-east and south-west elevations. A central passageway runs north-west to south-east through the building. The design exhibits a powerfully-defined symmetry throughout.

External Appearance

The building displays a French Renaissance architectural style and rises three storeys with attics. The principal north-west elevation and the south-east elevation both follow a symmetrical 2:3:2 bay arrangement, with a segmental-arch central passageway. The roof is steeply pitched and hipped, with projecting eaves supported on cast-iron brackets. Each roof slope features a central dormer window with a steep pyramidal roof, timber brackets, a timber finial, and paired 12-pane timber sash windows. The chimneystacks are positioned axially along the ridge, rectangular in form with broad faces oriented to the south-west and north-east; the corner stacks are L-shaped. A granite drainage channel encircles the building's perimeter.

All elevations feature granite quoins, chamfered granite lintels with stone soldier-coursed relieving arches above the ground and first floor windows, and slate cills. The central archway has granite dressings, including carved Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry badges and 'CLI' monograms on the keystones of each arch. Late 19th-century arched boarded-timber double-doors with wicket gates are fitted to each opening; the north-west doors have glazed openings at the top. The central passageway contains a central timber ceiling hatch. Roughly halfway along the passage are late 19th-century timber double-doors to the south-west and 20th-century timber double doors to the north-east, both with granite thresholds. The passageway floor is surfaced with 20th-century asphalt and tactile paving, and the walls are rendered and painted.

The south-west and north-east elevations each have two openings per storey and a roughly-central two-storey unroofed staircase tower with a moulded granite parapet. These staircase towers have granite plinths and are entered on the south-east side through dressed-granite openings. Each tower contains internal granite steps that wind around a bull-nosed wall. Doors into the Keep at ground-floor level are blocked but both retain granite thresholds. Within each tower is a late 19th-century wall-mounted wrought-iron lamp bracket. On the south-west elevation next to that tower is a late 19th-century wall-mounted cast-iron pulley hoist. From the north-east tower, a 20th-century steel fire-escape staircase leads up to the second floor, with windows at each level converted to doorways. Next to each ground-floor opening is a boarded timber door leading to a small understairs room, lit by a six-pane sash window with internal late 19th-century flat steel shutters.

Windows throughout are 12-pane timber sashes, reducing in size from ground to second floor. Some sash windows are hornless and date to the 1859 construction. Others are from the later 19th century, and some have been repaired. Ground-floor windows have external 20th-century steel security bars. Rainwater goods are largely cast iron.

Interior Arrangement

The interior follows a symmetrical plan arranged around a north-west to south-east axis. The sole vertical access is provided by a granite-slab dog-leg cantilevered staircase with tooled herringbone treads, located on the north-west side of the building within the south-west wing. The staircase from the second floor to the attics is 19th-century softwood with a timber balustrade.

Ground Floor

On the ground floor, the south-west wing is accessed through a small lobby, with a WC to the right at a lower level (containing a 19th-century timber boarded door with vent holes), and an archive room to the left which has a fireplace recess with a redundant 20th-century stove. A large room at the end of the wing serves as a library. This contains a roughly-central late 19th-century cast-iron column supporting a timber cross-beam, a fireplace with cast-iron surround in the west corner, and a mid-20th-century partition with borrowed lights to the south-east. This space is further partitioned as offices; the southern fireplace is blocked.

The north-east wing is also accessed through a small lobby, with a 20th-century kitchen to the left and further archive room to the right. The room at the north-east end of the wing is used for museum activities and has a central chamfered timber column flanked by two additional late 19th-century cast iron columns, supporting a timber cross beam. Fireplaces in the north and east corners are blocked. The walls in this part of the building are faced with 20th-century plastic dado panelling with mid-20th-century pegboard above, and 20th-century timber skirtings and covings.

First Floor

The first floor comprises three large rooms, each with a mid-19th-century central chamfered timber column flanked by two additional late 19th-century cast iron columns, supporting a timber cross beam. The two spaces to the north-east of the stairs are used for the permanent exhibition, so doors have been removed and windows covered. The trapdoor to the passageway hatch is visible in the floor of the central space, with pulley fixings on the ceiling above, and some early roll-moulded skirtings survive.

Second Floor

The second floor again comprises three large rooms, but these are subdivided. Due to modern finishes it is not possible to determine the exact date or detail of the partitions, although some may be late 19th century as they align with the additional cast-iron columns in the rooms below; some may possibly date from the 1859 construction, and some are 20th century. All spaces on this floor are used for permanent exhibitions, so again doors have been removed and windows covered.

The room in the north corner has exposed timber floorboards and a fireplace with a cast-iron surround and stone hearth. On the south-west wall is a small timber hatch with a sliding door, historically used for communication between the Commanding Officer and their adjutant. There is a small hatch in the southernmost room (historically for use by the Chief Clerk), where there is also a mid-20th-century tiled fireplace and an early 20th-century safe against the external wall. A later partition to the north-west may have been used as a lobby from a now blocked external entrance on the south-west elevation. The staircase wall to the south-east is a mid-20th-century timber and glass partition, covered on the staircase face.

Attic (Third Floor)

The attic or third floor is open to the roof structure, which was ceiled and insulated in 2012. Some partitions of various dates remain, but the three-cell plan is retained. The roof structure consists of simple sawn softwood beams, comprising trusses, rafters, purlins and a ridge plate, alongside support posts and mansard rafters.

The doorway between the middle and north-east room has a segmental lintel and a slim timber architrave, probably mid-19th century in date. In the north-east room is a lead hearth with its cast-iron stove now disconnected and relocated in the room, but with a retained late 19th-century 'Fire Bucket' sign on the wall. In the south-west room late 19th-century painted lettering survives on the intermediate purlins, possibly indicating sleeping or storage bays, and there is a fireplace recess with a cast-iron stove on the north-east wall. In the space opposite the staircase there is a late 19th-century matchboard partition with glazed window, and a high-level timber hatch, possibly related to three late 19th-century large riveted galvanised water tanks mounted on cast-iron girders at the head of the staircase.

General Interior Features

The internal walls dividing the three-cell plan are of mid-19th-century stone construction with rounded corners to openings, and plain timber skirting. Unless stated, walls are plastered and painted; floors are generally carpeted or have modern coverings on suspended timber floorboards; and ceilings have been lined with fibreboard and painted.

A variety of timber four-panel doors survive from the 1859 construction and late 19th century, some of which have been repurposed, with 20th-century additions. Doors off the main staircase are much larger and heavier, with some War Department-issue door furniture. One door retains a hand-painted sign to the 'Lieutenancy Office' on the second floor, west, and others survive under layers of paint.