Trillow

Trillow is a house of early 16th-century origins with late 16th-century remodelling, some late 17th-century alterations and extension, and substantial repair undertaken at the time of survey in 1985.

The building is constructed of colourwashed rendered cob with the left end wall faced in brick. It has a thatched roof gabled at the ends, partly concealed by tarpaulin, with end stacks, an axial stack, and an end stack to the wing. It is two storeys high.

The present plan consists of 3 rooms and a through passage. The hall is heated from a stack backing on to the passage, with a large inner room to the left and a room to the right. A rear wing adjoins the lower end room. The wing is single-room in plan and is divided from the lower end by an axial passage.

The building shows complex development. The present main range was originally an open hall house of 3 rooms. A change in the plane of the front wall suggests there may have been 2 phases of medieval development, possibly involving the rebuilding of the lower (right) end. A first floor partition suggests that the hall may have been part floored before major remodelling, when the hall stack was inserted backing on to the passage, creating the present 3-room and through-passage plan. The lower end was altered as a parlour, probably contemporary with the building of the rear kitchen wing. The oak roof timbers over the inner room were replaced in the late 17th century with elm.

The asymmetrical front is 4 windows wide with 4 gabled dormers. The front door opens to the passage to the right of centre and retains an old doorframe. The ground floor window to the right is an early 19th-century 20-pane sash; other fenestration comprises 1980s timber sashes and casements in old embrasures.

The interior features smoke-blackened roof timbers over the hall and lower end with 3 face-pegged jointed cruck trusses complete with smoke-blackened rafters and thatch. The collars are mortised into the principals, which are mortised at the apex with a strengthening piece below. Wide battens carry the thatch over the hall; at the lower end the thatch is carried by an arrangement of twigs, variation possibly reflecting the different status of the 2 medieval rooms. One board from a smoke louvre survives in the hall roof.

The medieval rafters over the passage have been plastered between, and a partition has been introduced above the collar of the right-hand (lower) truss. The replacement elm trusses over the inner room are not smoke-blackened and have straight collars halved and pegged on to the principals.

The lower end (right-hand) ground floor room has a deeply-chamfered cross beam with a scroll screen with step ogee stops (2 planks and 1 muntin missing), the screen contemporary with the flooring above. The hall contains a large open fireplace with one stone rubble and one brick jamb and a mitred chamfered timber lintel. The chamfered axial beam has ogee stops. Between the hall and the inner room, an oak plank and muntin screen survives. A short section of first floor partition above with studs and plaster infill indicates the hall was part floored.

The rounded stair turret at the rear of the inner room contains a timber stair and a large 2-light timber mullioned window. The rear wing has a large open fireplace with a timber lintel with run-out stops; the roof trusses in the wing are pegged and probably date to the late 17th century.

The position of the medieval hall window on the rear wall was located during repair. This is an evolved house of late medieval origins.