Trefusis House Including Kegynow Corth

Country house, rebuilt in 1891 to a design by Hicks, incorporating dressed granite features from the demolished 17th century and earlier house that previously occupied the site.

The building is constructed of random granite rubble walls with dressed granite plinth, sills, jambstones, archstones, lintels and copings. The half-hipped main roof is of Delabole slate, with corbelled stone chimneys to the left-hand side walls and axial and irregularly disposed brick chimneys.

The house is two storeys with a large attic, arranged on a double-depth irregular plan. A single-storey service wing projects from the right-hand (north) end, with a separate single-storey wing at right angles to the rear right, now converted to a separate flat. The architectural style is Baronial Gothic.

The east entrance front is irregularly arranged with 1:2:2 bays. The dominant feature is a large, symmetrical three-storey entrance projection with a crow-stepped gable coping of granite ashlar corbelled out over a moulded cornice. The central doorway is a depressed two-centred arch with splayed jambs and hoodmould, flanked by two small single-light trefoil-headed windows. The Trefusis coat of arms is displayed over the doorway. The first floor carries a sill band to a pair of three-light mullions with apexed lintels, and a wider, more squat four-light mullion to the gable with relieving arches over the windows. At the angle with the left-hand bay stands a corbelled oriel turret rising through the first and second floors, surmounted by a steep conical roof with weathervane and complex eaves cornice. The adjoining bay to the left has an ashlar parapet and a small first-floor two-light window with splayed jambs. To the right of the entrance is a three-light transomed mullion with apexed lintel, and at the far right a squat, wide stepped three-light mullion. The first floor carries a sill band and three-light mullion to the left and two-light mullion to the right, with hipped roof dormers of matching width above.

The south front is slightly irregular with two windows, centred around a raised hipped roof with battered sides flanked by slate-hanging behind and above parapets. A chimney on stepped moulded corbels projects at first-floor level. The ground-floor left-hand window is a four-light transomed mullion with squat ogee-arched lights and an apex lintel with relieving arch. A canted oriel bay with parapet stands on the right, containing similar lights. The first floor has a sill band and two identical three-light mullions with apex lintels and relieving arches, with two-light mullions above on either side of the chimney breast. All windows retain their original casements.

An arched doorway to the north wall of the west wing, now known as Kegynow Corth, is reused from the old house.

The interior was not inspected at the time of listing, though the principal rooms may reflect the style of the exterior.

Historically, Trefusis was an important house from the 16th century onwards. In 1382, James Trefusis was responsible for searching persons departing the realm of Penryn and trafficking in gold, silver, jewels, letters of exchange and Papal bulls. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Francis Trefusis and his son Samuel had quays built to enable Flushing to develop as a port. Each of these eminent members of the Trefusis family was elected to serve as Member of Parliament for Penryn. Historical information is drawn from quotations by the 17th-18th century writer Tonkin and others, cited in "The Story of Flushing Cornwall" by Ursula Redwood (Lady Redwood).