Treffgarne Hall

Treffgarne Hall

A country house of squared rubble sandstone in shades of purple and green, built in 1824 as recorded on a plaque on the rear wall. The building comprises a main house of two storeys with a long three-storey north-west wing, all covered with slate close-eaved hipped roofs and topped with two stone ridge stacks.

The south front is the principal elevation, presenting five windows arranged 1-3-1 bays. The outer bays are very slightly projected with their own hipped roofs. The windows are twelve-pane sashes set beneath purple stone voussoirs, with tooled stone or slate sills; some original hornless sashes remain, though others have been replaced. The fourth window has been altered to a French window. The east end has two bays with a centrally placed door contained within a purple stone porch. The porch is formed of two tapering square piers with chamfered bases, neck rings, and ogee-moulded capitals (the capitals now renewed in cement), surmounted by a moulded cornice to a flat roof. The door itself is heavily panelled with two panels and an overlight with marginal glazing bars, set on slate flags. The west end comprises two bays; the first floor left bay is blank whilst the ground floor has casement pairs flanking a glazed door, all with purple stone voussoirs. A twentieth-century window has been inserted to the left. A short north return contains a ground floor window with cut stone voussoirs.

The main rear wall is dominated by the commemorative plaque dated 1824 positioned between two centre bays. These bays have twelve-pane sashes to the first floor and doors with tall overlights below; the right door has an altered head whilst the others retain purple stone voussoirs. A large pointed stair light with small-paned glazing and a tiny roundel in a brick surround sits to the left at landing level. To the extreme right, in the angle formed with the rear wing, is a long stair light with a stone slab lintel and twelve panes arranged in pairs. The projected stone eaves course stops just short of the north-east corner, suggesting the building may have been constructed in stages.

The north-west rear wing is three storeys high, rising to a similar roof height as the main house, with a large stone stack at its north end. The east side has three windows beneath projected stone eaves, with red brick cambered heads to all openings. The attic lights are six-pane, with the centre one blank; the first floor windows are twelve-pane, with the right one blank. The ground floor contains a glazed door set to the left and paired eight-pane narrow sashes in the first bay, both in original openings with brick voussoirs. The centre bay has similarly paired eight-pane sashes, whilst the right bay has a French window; both these openings were remade in the twentieth century to match the first bay. An outside stair with brick head ascends the north end to a loft door. The rear west wall is faced in brick, with a wall-face chimney positioned to the right of centre. The first floor has a twelve-pane sash to the right and paired narrow eight-pane sashes to the left. The ground floor holds a twelve-pane sash beneath the left window and a door to the left, all with brick heads. An inserted window with timber lintel and paired eight-pane sashes has been added to the extreme left.

The entrance forecourt to the east of the main house is enclosed by a rubble stone wall in an L-plan, running north from the north-east corner and returning east. Between squared stone piers sits a cambered-headed archway with cut stone voussoirs; the parapet dips between these piers. The walls were originally ramped up on each side of the archway, though the east wall has since been raised to a flat top.

Interior

The interior has been substantially repaired and altered in the later twentieth century during use as a hotel. The plan is unusual, featuring a spine corridor with two staircases of roughly equal scale. The north-east stair, lit by a Gothic stair window, is said to have been largely remade in the later twentieth century, but retains scrolled tread-ends, a thin mahogany rail with scrolled foot, and wrought iron standards between stick balusters that appear original; these iron standards are said to have been retrieved from an outhouse. The stair hall is said to have formerly encompassed the south-east ground floor room, which now contains an original panelled door in the plaster wall to the present stair hall and retains original panelled shutters. A plaster rose decorates the stair hall ceiling, with another in the first floor south-east room, which also has panelled doors and shutters.

The spine passage has a renewed ceiling border. Two small rooms lie to the north, and a door with deep reveal opens to the main centre room to the south. Both this door and that to a small north room are fielded six-panel doors of an older type than the other doors, which feature Regency-style sunk panels. Fielded panelled reveals flank the door to the south room. This room preserves an original plaster reeded ceiling border with square rosettes at the corners. The west fireplace contains a later nineteenth-century iron grate, and a timber mantelpiece with long brackets to the ground and bracketed shelf, possibly replaced in the twentieth century.

The corridor opens into the west stair hall. The stair here appears largely twentieth-century work, with a closed string, square balusters, and thick rail. At the top of the first flight is a tall narrow wall recess suggesting an older building that has been altered, possibly concealing a flue. The long stair light is set into the corner of the stair with canted reveals, again suggesting alteration in this area. Off the stair hall, a door of exceptional height in Regency style opens to the south-west room; two doors in the west wall lead to small rooms, one of original six-panel design, and an original six-panel door to the north opens to the kitchen wing. The south-west room is entirely twentieth-century alteration, with no fireplace and two recesses in the east wall.

The kitchen wing has been opened into a single long room on the ground floor during later twentieth-century alteration, dominated at its north end by a large timber lintel to a fireplace.