Roskruge Barton Farmhouse and Rear Garden Walls, St. Anthony-in-Meneage, Cornwall

Description

SW 72 SE ST. ANTHONY
-IN-MENEAGE
5/199 Roskruge Barton Farmhouse and rear
garden walls (formerly listed as
10.7.57 Roscruge Barton)
GV
II*

Farmhouse and rear garden walls. Circa late medieval, remodelled in the circa late
C16, early C17 and slightly enlarged in the C18. Painted rubble walls, some cob and
many dressed granite outer frames of mullioned windows, some wooden lintels.
Scantle slate roofs with some hand-made crested clay ridge tiles, brick chimneys
over 2 gable ends and 2 lateral chimneys. The left hand gable end has large
external breast and the rear wall has large lateral breast.
Plan T - shaped in the C17 with the principal axis of the house running east-west
and the head of the T retained from a truncated medieval house as a cross wing,
extending as a parlour wing over a cellar at the rear with principal chamber with
plaster barrel ceiling over and remodelled in the late C17 as a stair hall at the
front with pantry/buttery between. What may have been a service wing of the
medieval house, left, was remodelled in the C17 to become kitchen, far left, with
enormous gable hearth and hall right, with lateral rear fireplace. A former through
passage between is entered from a circa late C17 2-storey porch at the front
(north). In the C18 a hip ended outbuilding was added behind the parlour or
possibly the lower end of the medieval house was rebuilt as an outbuilding, probably
a cider loft, incorporating some older roof timbers. Also probably in the C18 a
service wing was added at right angles in front of the kitchen and a wide window was
cut on the south side of the kitchen to replace the 2-light former mullioned window
which was altered to become a doorway into the service wing.
Two storeys, but cross wing right has 2 storeys over cellar plus attic. Irregular
roughly north front with projecting gable end of wing in front left and gable and
cross wing with lesser projection right, porch with oriel bay window over in left
hand angle and otherwise irregularly disposed window openings. Circa early C17 4-
centred arched doorway with straight chamfers and stops, old ledged door. Circa
late C17 porch formed by slate hung gabled 1st floor window projection carried on 2
Tuscan granite columns; ogee moulded plates form cornice under. The 4-light wooden
mullioned window with side lights is probably original and has circa late C18
casements with horizontal glazing bars. (It is easy to see here how this type of
casement evolved from leaded casements tied to saddle bars). The right hand
sidelight has leaded panes. The two ground floor windows on the right originally
had 3 lights but the mullions are missing. The 3 openings to the 1st floor have
rubble jambs and are probably contemporary with the porch when possibly the eaves
were heightened, or later. The square middle window has, like the ground floor
openings, a circa late C19 6-pane horned sash. The gable end of the cross wing,
right, has 2 mullioned windows, formerly with 2 lights but centre mullions removed,
one to light basement but blocked just above ground level and one at mid-floor level
to light stair, now with C19 6 pane horned sash. The 2 light casement above and the
circa early C19 12-pane horizontal sliding sash to the gable are in openings,
probably cut when the present late C17 stair was inserted.
Irregular 3-window west front plus single storey 2-window service lean-to on right.
Circa late medieval ogee headed single light slit window at ground floor left; C17
2-light mullioned window with mullion removed, left of middle and tall C20 3-light
mullioned window right. Tall fixed light stair window above ogee-headed light,
square window opening towards middle and large square opening to former principal
chamber right, both with horned sashes. The lean-to windows are circa early C19 12-
pane horizontal sliding sashes.
Rear has 3 windows to 1st floor, one to the left of the lateral hall stack and two
on the right, all circa late C18 horizontal sliding sashes with crown glass, 3-light
left and middle and 2-light right. The former through passage doorway, under the
middle window, has chamfered lintel but rubble jambs. Shallow arched wooden frame
within probably contemporary with porch; old ledged door; semi-circular step in
front of doorway may be a former door arch. 16-pane hornless sash left of chimney
breast; C18 32-pane hornless sash in very wide opening at far right and small window
opening possibly cut C20 left of doorway. The parlour wing and cider house project
from the left hand side. Wide rubble jambed doorway with internal splay leads into
the cellar below the parlour. Above this doorway, overgrown with ivy, is a blocked
4-light mullioned window. The cider house, adjoining the cellar and parlour but
with much lower eaves, has central ground floor doorway and doorway at 1st floor
left approached by straight flight of granite steps at right angles. Under the
steps are 2 square niches, possibly for geese.
Interior inspected to ground floor and cellar only: Two circa early C18 3-panel
doors survive in the kitchen, a shellheaded niche beside the parlour hearth and a
closed-well circa late C17 stair with square newel posts, large turned ball finials
and plain panelled dado. Earlier features possibly hidden. The cellar has cobbled
floor with drain and two stone monoliths set in the ground in the west wall
presumably so that the higher end of the cellar (north) could be used for animal
standings, possibly stabling, or used as a shippon. There is a domed granite base
to one of the vertical wooden floor supports.
A Richard Roscruc of Roscruc is documented in 1284 and Anthony Roscruge in 1684
(information from occupiers).
An inventory of 1605, mentions a parlour at Roskruge (Chesher), so if the
remodelling of the house took place some years before this possibly the doorway
within the porch and the mullioned windows and therefore much of the structure may
be C16.
This is a fascinating house with an unusual and complicated plan development which
possibly would be better understood following a careful survey to produce measured
plans and elevations. However, Roskruge survives little altered since the C19 and
is a rare early house in this part of Cornwall.

Listing NGR: SW7756523575

External Links

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