Frenchman'S Creek

This is a merchants' hall, dating to the 15th and early 16th centuries. It is situated on Fowey Town Quay in Cornwall. The building is constructed of rubble with a render finish, and has an asbestos slate hipped roof with hipped returns to rear wings. It includes two central gabled dormer windows with 4-pane horned sashes on the first floor, with the right-hand window being lower and breaking the eaves. A rendered stack is located at the rear of the front range.

The original design was a single-depth range, open to the roof but later floored in the 17th century. Two parallel wings were added later, running at right angles to the rear and linking to The Waterfront Restaurant. The front elevation is largely blind except for the dormers. The ground floor features a central doorway positioned under the left-hand dormer, a window to the left, and a pair of windows slightly right of the doorway. All ground-floor openings contain 20th-century transomed windows with glazing bars. The right-hand return has a three-window range with a 3:1:2 light arrangement, all with 20th-century 8-pane horned sashes. The ground floor of the return displays a 20th-century window on the far left, a wide doorway slightly left of centre, and a serving hatch in a former window opening to the right.

Inside, the ground floor features chamfered cross beams of two different dates and set on two levels. Of particular significance are two late medieval oak roofs of considerable interest. The roof to the right is a 15th-century arch-braced and crown-post roof, with wind braces, spanning two bays, plus a truncated bay on the right. The other roof, dating to the early 16th century, is of a 4:2-bay design, featuring arch-braced trusses and square-set purlins at collar level, with threaded purlins throughout. The roof on the left has two trusses on the right of slightly different design, probably slightly later. A moulded truss, second from the left, indicates a higher status for that end of the building. A screen truss connects the main roof to the crown-post roof, carrying both square-set and angled purlins. This truss reveals that the eaves were heightened at some point, likely in the 17th century. The building’s significance lies in its rarity as a surviving late medieval town house in Cornwall, containing a remarkable amount of original fabric. The crown post roof is unique in Cornwall, with the only comparable example being found at Rectory Farm in Morwenstow parish. The building has been documented by Mercer for the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments and Ancient Buildings (RCHME).