Penwarden

Penwarden is a house dating from 1662, built of stone rubble with granite quoins and a scantle slate roof. It is located in South Hill. The building features a shallow, gabled projecting wing and a large stone stack with a moulded cap and slate strings on the left-hand gable. Further brick chimney shafts are present on the projecting wing and in the right-hand gable. The house follows an L-shaped plan, incorporating a dairy in the angle beneath the continuation of the rear wing's slope.

The original plan likely involved three rooms and a through passage, with a parlour wing situated at the higher end, later augmented by a lean-to enclosure of the passage and rear doorway. A short, wide wing was added at the front of the higher end, serving as a hall. A lower room, possibly a kitchen, was originally heated by a gable end stack, while the hall stack was subsequently truncated and the hall heated by a stack in the front wing’s gable end, eventually with the inner rooms combined to enlarge the hall.

The front facade is asymmetrical, with a five-window arrangement. The two-storey, gabled wing projects slightly forward on the right. The ground floor features a three-light granite mullion window on the left, displaying chamfered jambs, lintel, sill, and hoodmould. An angle entrance is situated between the main house and the projecting wing, framed by a three-centred granite arch with run-out stops and a rectangular hoodmould, displaying spandrels with the 1662 datestone. A double-planked, studded door, possibly original, is fitted with strap hinges. To the right of the entrance is a three-light mullion window with a chamfered surround. The first floor has three late 19th-century two-light casements. The gable end of the projecting wing appears to have been rebuilt, and two large early 20th-century two-light casements are positioned in the gable end, set beneath granite lintels. The rear wing is likely an addition, with stone mullion windows reused from the front wall. A four-light granite mullion window, featuring a wide, centrally chamfered king mullion, is set in the gable end of the rear wing. Narrow casements with iron stanchion bars are also present. A hoodmould protects one window, while another features ovolo-moulded jambs and a dripmould with label stops. The right-hand slope of the gable extends into a catslide over a circa mid-19th century extension. A wall with banded masonry and an enclosed plank door is visible on the right-hand gable end of the rear elevation, leading to a two-storey barn with a corrugated asbestos roof and gable ends.

Internally, a room on the right of the front elevation contains fielded panels below dado level, and features a circa mid-18th century recessed cupboard with a round arched head and semi-circular shelves. Full interior inspection was not possible at the time of survey.