Gwavas Farmhouse

Gwavas Farmhouse is a two-storey farmhouse dating from the 17th century, extended in the 18th and 19th centuries. It stands on the north-west to south-east axis and presents a complex architectural history reflected in its complicated plan and elevation.

The walls are of painted rubble with wooden lintels, except where dressed granite quoins mark the 19th-century extensions and rebuilding. The roofs are of slate throughout, mostly fairly steep grouted scantle slate with gable ends. Stone stacks rise over the gable ends of the 17th-century range, while brick chimneys mark the other two gable ends and sit behind the lower end room between the porch and back wall.

The 17th-century range is covered with handmade crested clay ridge tiles and sits on two levels. The original plan was probably T-shaped with three rooms: a lower end room on the left (possibly the hall or kitchen), a higher end room probably serving as the parlour, a cross passage between them, and a small service room in a shallow wing at right angles to the middle of the rear. The rear wing was lengthened, probably in the 18th century, and heightened around the middle of the 19th century. In the early 19th century, a single-room wing was added at right angles to the middle of the front, blocking the original doorway, with its own entrance in the angle. At approximately the same time, the original parlour was converted to a pantry, its rear corner rebuilt, and a new window inserted for through-ventilation. Later 19th-century additions include lean-tos: one at the lower gable end, an earth closet on the right side of the front wing, and a porch in the rear left-hand angle that may have functioned as a wash house.

The north-east front is slightly irregular with two windows. The blind gable end of the front wing projects slightly left of centre, its left-hand wall obscuring the right-hand jambs of the ground and first-floor windows lighting the lower end rooms. The front wing and lower end share the same eaves level, while the parlour front has a higher eaves line.

The ground-floor left opening is square, containing a circa early 19th-century 12-pane hornless sash with a high meeting rail, with a narrower 16-pane hornless sash above of similar date. The parlour front (right) was slightly remodelled in the early 19th century. Three ground-floor windows with narrow masonry piers between them originally occupied this elevation. The left opening is now blocked; the middle window (now left-hand) contains a 15-pane two-light horizontal-sliding sash with zinc gauze covering the left-hand light, and a similar window exists in the rear wall. Above this window and the blocked opening to the left sits the original 17th-century ovolo-moulded lintel with scrolled stops resembling the ram's horns of Ionic capitals. The right-hand window is a circa late 19th-century two-light horizontal-sliding sash, and the first-floor window is a tall circa early 19th-century 16-pane hornless sash in a narrowed opening. The other elevations remain unaltered since the 19th century. A curious roof dormer with a six-pane light, probably serving the stairs, is also present.

The interior was not inspected at the time of survey in 1986, when the building was uninhabited. Notable 17th-century details include the moulded lintels, ridge tiles, and stone chimneys. The later additions, while creating an unusually complicated appearance, are also architecturally interesting.