Manor Cottage Tetcott Barton Tetcott Manor

This manor house, now subdivided into three separate dwellings, originated in the 16th and 17th centuries but has undergone substantial alterations in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The building is constructed of stone rubble with granite dressings, though some walls are in Flemish bond brick. The roofs are covered with scantle slate in both hipped and gabled forms, with stone and brick chimneys and some early crested ridge tiles.

The house is architecturally complex, with multiple building phases that are difficult to distinguish due to the re-siting of external features and the extensive re-use of old materials. Four irregular ranges surround a small central courtyard, creating a picturesque composition. The core of the west range may have been an early hall range, though little evidence of the original plan survives beneath considerable piecemeal additions and alterations, mostly dating from the 18th century.

The south range is of single depth with a through passage. It displays a re-sited datestone of 1603 and features a two-storey porch. This range may originally have been a service wing that was upgraded during the mid to late 17th century, the period when a fine first-floor room with panelling and a plaster ceiling was created. This range was later used, at least partly, for agricultural purposes. The two-storey porch appears to post-date one of the sash windows in the south range and is likely to have been rebuilt or added as an antiquarian feature in the 19th or 20th century, though it may genuinely be 17th century in origin. The east range contains a fine first-floor court room with late 17th and early 18th century plasterwork. The north range is mostly brick and incorporates a double-depth block that could be late 17th century, though it might alternatively represent the re-use of earlier brick or could be contemporary with the building of the new Tetcott house around 1700.

The subdivision of the house is equally complex. For example, the circa mid-17th century staircase in the west range that now serves the present Manor House is said originally to have been the staircase of the Barton before the partition walls were altered.

The south elevation presents an asymmetrical stone rubble nine-window front with sash windows and an approximately central two-storey gabled porch. This porch has a rounded outer stone doorway with a keystone below the re-sited datestone, a 16-pane boxed sash window, and a large slate sundial in the gable, probably dating from the 18th century. The inner doorway of the porch has a cranked arch and a massive late 16th or early 17th century door with studs and staples. To the left of the porch, the range has regular fenestration with 12-pane horned sashes dating from 1936. The rear wall at the left end of the range is brick and was upgraded from a shippon in 1936. To the right of the porch, the range has 10-, 12-, and 18-pane sashes. The upper floor sashes are later 18th century but are set in openings with brick jambs of apparently around 1900. The lower floor sashes date from 1936. A straight joint indicates that the right-hand bay is an addition and that the axial stack at the right end was originally a gable end stack.

The west elevation has a picturesque asymmetrical four-plus-two-window front. The right-hand end is set back with two gabled dormers, whilst the left-hand end has a massive brick end stack and one gabled dormer on the front. In the centre, the eaves rise to form a separately roofed block with a steep hipped roof and a stack on the front with a tall chimney shaft. The set-back right-hand block has one 12-pane sash and three three-light stone mullioned windows with hoodmoulds and label stops. The gabled dormers have attractive decorative slatehanging in their gables. The central block with the hipped roof has a probably 17th century chamfered rounded doorway on the right return, and a further entrance on the front to the left beneath a wide slated porch canopy carried on timber posts. There is one three-light stone mullioned window to the right of the door and three first-floor 12-pane sashes. To the left of the hipped block are two- and three-light casements with glazing bars.

The north and east elevations show considerably more alteration and rebuilding with features from several periods. The courtyard retains several granite mullioned windows.

Inside, 17th century features in the south range include several moulded stopped doorways, some with unusual heart stops and unconventional carved stops, and fine 17th century doors with moulded battens forming panels. Some of the doorways have been re-sited. The principal room to the right of the through passage has large roughly-chamfered cross beams, at least one of which is reused, and closely spaced exposed joists, with a 20th century grate. This room was reinstated from a cider store in 1936. A small section of 17th century plaster frieze to the rear of the passage is decorated with thistles, roses, and fleur de lis.

Features of the early 17th century include a dog-leg staircase with turned balusters and newel posts with barrel finials, some of the treads being solid timber baulks. The principal first-floor room in the south range has a coved plaster ceiling with moulded panels of circa late 17th century date, with contemporary timber panelling on the walls. The present fireplace has chamfered granite jambs and lintel. The roof above shows much alteration and reconstruction with some reused smoke-blackened timbers, one cranked collar, and evidence over the coved ceiling of a previous plaster barrel ceiling from the early 17th century. The west end of this range has a presumably 19th century scissor brace roof whitewashed throughout, evidence that it was indeed an open cowshed until divided into rooms in 1936 and after the war.

The court room in the east range has an armorial plaster overmantel of circa late 17th century date and a central plaster ceiling motif of a trumpeting angel, possibly of early 18th century date. The roof of this range is partly of principal rafter type and partly of couples with a ridge piece.

The interior of the west range is less rich in visible early features, but there may be chimneypieces and beams concealed behind the modern plaster. There is a barrel vault ceiling on the first floor. The disused upper floor rooms in the north-west corner remain little altered from the early 18th century, with a simple turned baluster staircase and two-panel doors. The roofs in this section are partly principal rafter with dovetailed collars and halved and pegged apices, and partly coupled rafters with halved and pegged apices.

The kitchen in the north range has a massive partly-blocked fireplace that may be 16th or 17th century in origin, with a high granite lintel. Tradition identifies this room as the hall, but it is likely to have been the kitchen of the manor.

The manor was bought around 1550 by the first John Arscott of Tetcott, who commenced building a house which may in part still survive, though very heavily disguised. The quadrangular plan, characteristic of Tudor houses, appears to be more the result of chance than deliberate design, and the original purpose of the different ranges remains very ambiguous. Features both external and internal survive from all periods, whilst the roof structure mostly appears to be 17th century.

The house was downgraded from the manor around 1700 when a new brick Tetcott house in the Baroque style was constructed immediately to the east. In effect, this meant that the old buildings became service ranges and the home farm, a situation that continued until the estate was inherited by the Molesworths of Pencarrow in 1788 and the family seat moved there. This led to the demolition of the new Tetcott in 1831 and the further downgrading of the old Tetcott. It still continues in use as a farmhouse in the north-west corner of the courtyard, but the south range was brought back from agricultural to domestic use in 1935 by Sir John Molesworth-St Aubyn and continues in use by the family today.

Much history and legend surround the life of the Arscotts in this house, including several curious tales concerning their late 18th century jester Black John. The hunting prowess of the last of the Arscotts is celebrated in a west country ballad, and the historian Hoskins suggests that the Arscott family and their house epitomise all the ancient Devonshire squires and their homes. Tetcott Manor has a long and intriguing building history. The irregular exterior is extremely picturesque and forms a fine group with Tetcott Church and a number of associated buildings of different dates.