Powdermills Farmhouse And Attached Former Cooperage And Rear Farm Building And Front Garden Walls

Powdermills Farmhouse, along with an attached former cooperage and rear farm building, dates from circa 1844 and was restored in circa 1990. It is constructed of granite rubble with dressed granite jambs and lintels around openings. The house’s front and sides were rendered in the early 20th century, and it has a gabled slate roof with rendered brick stacks.

The building has a double-depth plan, with a rectangular single-room cooperage to the right, connected by a short link. A former farm building stands to the rear of the house. The south elevation of the house features a mid-20th century porch with a half-glazed door, and 6/6-pane hornless sash windows, with a central first-floor 3/6-pane sash window. The rear elevation has a blocked doorway positioned in front of a 6-panelled door with an overlight, a tall 6/6-pane sash window to the stairwell with small lights to either side, and outer 6/6-pane sashes, with a late 20th-century replacement window on the right. The two-storey farm building has a hipped roof to the front and a gabled roof to the rear, with a lateral stone stack, a stone flag bridge leading to a rear first-floor doorway (now a window), and late 20th-century replacement windows. A late 20th-century rendered extension is located to the left (west).

A single-storey range with inserted openings connects the main house to a two-storey, 10-window cooperage, characterized by almost-square ground-floor windows, and four first-floor windows, with the outer ones being larger. The east gable has a doorway on the right-hand side. The rear of the cooperage has been altered, with remnants of similar ground-floor window openings and inserted garage doors.

The house’s interior retains original joinery, including moulded architraves and panelled doors, and features a central dogleg staircase. The cooperage has a large fireplace at each end, with the floor and roof renewed in circa 1990.

A rubble wall encloses the front garden.

The gunpowder works were operational by 1846, supplying mining and quarrying interests, and ceased operation in 1897. The site is a prominent feature of the moorland landscape east of Lydford, and represents one of the best-preserved water-driven powder works in England, with associated remains designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Powdermills Farmhouse is the best surviving manager’s house linked to this industry, after Ponsanooth in Cornwall, and its attached cooperage is the best example in England, illustrating the key functional buildings where gunpowder barrels were stored and manufactured.