Trehill House

Trehill House is a small country house that served as the home of the Ley family from the early 18th century until the 1950s. The house was rebuilt in 1827 for J.H. Ley by the architect C.R. Ayers (c. 1788–1845) in the Greek Revival style.

The exterior is finished in colourwashed stuccoed sandstone with a slate hipped roof hidden behind parapets and rendered chimney stacks. The building stands two storeys with an attic and half basement, the latter rusticated below a platband to provide a raised piano nobile for the principal rooms. Attic windows are concealed behind a balustraded parapet.

The entrance front faces west and is symmetrical with five bays. The centre bay is wider and recessed, approached by steps leading to a three-bay Greek Doric portico. A panelled two-leaf front door sits between 12-pane sashes. Sash windows throughout display moulded architraves, floating cornices and aprons to the piano nobile, with 12-pane glazing to this principal floor and 3-over-6-pane sashes to the first floor. Delicate strip mouldings decorate the first floor of the centre bay.

The east elevation, overlooking parkland, comprises seven bays with the centre three bays bowed forward. A ruinous mid-19th-century flight of steps leads to a French window into the library. The south elevation has five bays with the centre three slightly projecting; the outer windows of the piano nobile and first floor are blind, and the piano nobile windows have pediments. The north elevation is identical to the south, though minor alterations made in the 1950s provided access to attic flats.

The plan is approximately square, with a central entrance hall opening to a large stair hall behind it. The morning room lies to the right (south) and an office to the left (north). The stair hall connects to a bow-fronted library in the centre to the east, a deep drawing room on the south side with an ante room at its east end, and the dining room to the north-east. A service passage and butler's pantry historically connected the dining room and office; these spaces were converted to a kitchen and bathroom during 1980s reordering, and the service block no longer exists.

The interior retains very complete and refined Greek Revival detail with high-quality original joinery including double doors, doorcases and skirting boards. The entrance hall features three friezes with figures in relief, believed to be casts from the Temple of Apollo at Basra, and round-headed niches decorate the walls. A flamboyant mid-19th-century chimneypiece in free Jacobean style has been added opposite the front door.

The stair hall is splendid, top-lit with painted glass panes (not all complete) and decorated with Greek key patterns and a similar frieze to the entrance hall. The stair itself is an open well with decorated iron balusters, a ramped wreathed handrail, and a gallery of statue niches; statues were removed for cleaning at the time of survey in 1987 and are stated not to be contemporary with the house.

The library is very complete, featuring a black marble and gilded chimneypiece, a dentil frieze to the ceiling, and co-eval bookcases with dentil friezes. The drawing room contains an elegant white marble chimneypiece with anthemia carvings, original fireback and a mirror overmantel with decorated frame, together with a high-quality ceiling frieze of anthemia. The ante room at the east end of the drawing room displays similar decoration and retains an original chimneypiece with a rare survival: an ingenious integral fireguard that pulls out from one of the jambs. The dining room also retains its original chimneypiece and anthemion frieze. Original chimneypieces and plaster cornices survive intact on the first floor and attic storey, the latter now converted to flats.

C.R. Ayers also designed Canonteign House in Christow parish in 1828, which was altered following an early 20th-century fire. The pre-1827 house at Trehill is illustrated in a 1795 drawing by Swete, who also described contemporary planting around the house.