Cusgarne Manor Farmhouse And Mounting Block To Rear

Cusgarne Manor Farmhouse and mounting block to rear

A farmhouse with a complex building history. Possibly containing a 16th-century core, but substantially rebuilt in 1629 (datestone visible in west wall), incorporating earlier fragments. The front was remodelled at least once during the 17th century, and the rear was significantly altered in the early 18th century when an integral stair turret with flanking outshuts was added.

The house is built of coursed granite rubble with dressed granite quoins and window arches, flush granite sills, and a slurried slate roof with gabled ends. The roof features a wooden moulded eaves cornice with modillion brackets and brick chimney stacks over the gable ends.

The original plan was probably a 3-room through-passage arrangement, but in the early 18th century this was remodelled into a double-depth plan with 2 front rooms, a wide central cross passage, and a central stair turret at the rear flanked by shallow single-storey integral outshuts containing service rooms. To the east is a 2-room kitchen range, possibly incorporating part of an earlier single-depth phase of the house. A wide chimney breast serves the ground floor west end.

The symmetrical south front presents 2 storeys and an attic with 5 windows to the main house and a lower 2-window kitchen range to the right. The symmetrical section features dressed granite flat arches to ground floor openings, possibly replacing earlier timber lintels. The central doorway contains a 6-panel top-glazed door with original flush bottom panels. First-floor openings are spanned by a continuous wooden lintel with ovolo-moulding and ogee stops. Original 24-pane sashes with wide glazing bars and internal ovolo-mouldings light the main windows. The window over the door is wider with 30 panes. An early 18th-century 24-pane sash appears to an adjoining ground-floor opening of the kitchen range. The doorway and window above were probably inserted around the late 17th century, with the window widened in the early 18th century. Many other openings were originally wider but were narrowed around the late 17th century. First-floor left-hand windows were not narrowed until the early 18th century, as evidenced by the position of stops visible over blocked parts. Granite fragments of earlier mullioned windows have been reused as jambstones to the right adjoining the kitchen and elsewhere. The ground-floor window of the kitchen may be in the original door position, as the rear door is opposite. A small square early 18th-century central raking roof dormer contains a single light 9-pane casement. Many original crested clay ridge tiles survive. The kitchen section on the right has a tall brick chimney over the cross wall and a further brick chimney over the gable end.

The rear elevation displays a central tall gable stair tower flanked by integral outshuts under catslide roofs. An original back door with 6 fielded panels is located to the left.

The interior preserves the original early 18th-century plan and much of the contemporary joinery, including 2-panel doors with HL hinges, architraves, and panelled window shutters. A dog-leg stair survives, boarded where a balustrade would normally appear. Some hearths are partly blocked with 20th-century fireplaces. Original 18th-century floors and roof structure with pegged queen struts and apices are intact. The roof structure over the east range was not inspected but may be earlier.

A granite mounting block with 3 steps adjoins the north wall of the rear yard.

This is a multi-phase house that has remained almost completely unaltered since the early 18th century, retaining extremely rare and complete early sash windows with much original glass. The house is complemented by its surviving contemporary roof and eaves cornice, and a wall surface which evokes its earlier periods. The rear elevation with its central stair tower flanked by service outshuts is a particularly important feature that has not been altered since the early 18th century.