Penbanc

Penbanc is a cottage with an attached cowhouse, dating from the 18th century. The cottage is a single-storey building constructed of colourwashed rubble stone with larger quoins. It has a corrugated tin roof over a thatch, with slate incorporated in the lower courses. A substantial gable stack is located on the right-hand side, featuring a weathering course and projecting capping course. The front of the cottage has a central boarded door flanked by six-pane casement windows, with a small, blocked fire-window to the right. A projecting outshut is situated at the rear, with a small window in its gable. To the left of the cottage, set back slightly, is a cowhouse of plain rubble stone. The cowhouse’s roof and rear wall were partially collapsed at the time of inspection.

The central entrance leads into a passage, with a full planked partition on the left, leading to a former parlour with a plain fireplace. A partial screen is on the right, beyond which is the main room, containing a large fireplace fitted with a later cast iron range, and a blocked four-light window in the front wall. The interior walls are colourwashed and the floor is of quarry tile. A boarded loft extends over the cottage, partially dismantled at the time of inspection, but previously spanning the entire width. Three pairs of rough A-frame trusses, constructed of slender, rounded timbers with pegged joints, support the thatched roof, along with rough purlins supporting a straw thatch layer over an underthatch, likely originally incorporating gorse laid over a layer of straw rope tied to the purlins.