Penvith Farmhouse

Penvith Farmhouse

Farmhouse dating from approximately the mid-17th century, extended in approximately the mid-19th century. The building is constructed of stone rubble and cob, partly rendered and painted. The roof is slate.

The 17th-century range has a half-hipped lower end and a gabled higher end. A rear wing from approximately the 17th century has a hipped end. A 19th-century wing was added in the angle between the lower end and rear wing, with a higher slate roof and gabled end. A projecting front lateral stone rubble hall chimney stack is positioned at the lower end. A projecting stone rubble chimney stack stands on the gabled end of the parlour at the higher end, with its shaft now removed. A further side lateral chimney stack serves the rear wing, also with shaft removed. A brick chimney stack stands on the gabled end of the 19th-century extension.

The plan has been altered and the house re-orientated. It probably originally comprised an early 17th-century range with a 2-room and through-passage plan. A front lateral stack heated the hall kitchen at the lower end on the left, and a gable-end stack heated the parlour at the higher end on the right. A shallow wing was probably added at the lower end projecting from the front elevation between the lateral stack and through passage, likely a stair projection (now removed). A heated rear wing was added at the higher end to the rear of the through passage, forming an L-shaped plan plus stair projection. In the 19th century, a wing was added in the angle of the lower end and rear wing, creating a double-depth plan. The house was re-orientated with the 19th-century wing forming the front elevation, with the half-hipped lower end of the 17th-century range projecting slightly forward to the right.

The front elevation is 2 storeys with an asymmetrical 3-window arrangement. The left side features a regular 19th-century range with a ground-floor 16-pane sash window, a panelled door, and a window with glazing bars set within an early 20th-century rendered lean-to porch in the angle with the 17th-century range. The right side shows a 16-pane sash asymmetrically placed in the 17th-century range. The first floor has 16-pane and 8-pane sash windows in the 19th-century range and a 16-pane sash asymmetrically placed in the half-hipped end of the 17th-century range.

The east side elevation, which was originally the front elevation of the 17th-century range, contains a first-floor opening in the stair projection with a 17th-century ovolo-moulded timber lintel, now partly blocked by a late 19th-century 2-light casement window.

Interior features include a replaced slate lintel to the hall fireplace with cloam oven. Fireplaces to the parlour and rear wing are blocked. The ceiling beams to the parlour are fairly slight. A timber doorframe between the hall and probably the through passage dates from approximately the 17th century, moulded on the hall side with ovolo-moulds and high ogee stops, with a timber lintel above featuring ogee stops. A circa 17th-century 2-light timber mullion window is located in the original rear wall of the parlour, now the wall between parlour and rear wing.

The roof above the 17th-century range spans 7 bays covering the hall and parlour. At the higher end, above the parlour, the 2 trusses have been altered and some reused; the principals are unchamfered with trenched purlins, and 1 truss is probably reused showing a hole for a threaded purlin and possible smoke-blackening on one side, though this truss has been much altered. Above the through passage and hall, the 4 trusses are morticed at the apex. The principals are chamfered with slightly curved feet dying into the wall, and the chamfered, cambered collars have been halved, lapped and pegged onto the face of the principals. The trenched purlins have been largely replaced.