Penrose Farmhouse adjoining garden walls, gate piers, gate and outbuildings, Sennen, Cornwall

Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 14 January 2021 to correct the grade and to reformat the text to current standards

SW 32 NE
4/318

SENNEN
Penrose Farmhouse, adjoining garden walls, gate-piers, gate and outbuildings

GV
II*

Manor farmhouse including adjoining garden walls, gate-piers, gate and adjoining outbuildings. House on site since the C14 or earlier, present house is C16 and C17, remodelled in the C18 and C19. Datestone 1668 on parlour fireplace lintel with arms of the Jones and Lamb families. Some granite ashlar, otherwise granite rubble with granite dressings. Scantle slate roofs. House roof is U-shaped on plan with hipped corners where it returns at either end to gable-ended rear wings. Large C17 stone chimney over rear wall of left-hand room (parlour); a C17 or C18 stone chimney over a cross wall towards the right and a C19 brick chimney over an approximately central cross wall.

Plan: originally probably a much larger plan which has been reduced to a U-shaped plan plus stables parallel at the rear of a rear courtyard; high walls flank the front garden and there are the remains of C17 buildings adjoining the left-hand garden wall. The house is a four-room plan front range with front axial passage between the parlour on the left and a large slightly deeper kitchen (now subdivided) with pantry at rear towards the right; front doorway aligns with rear doorway; behind the passage is a straight flight stair (left) and a smaller parlour; on the right of the kitchen is a pantry and a second stair. At right angles behind the left and right- hand sides of the house are single-room-plan service wings. The wing behind the parlour is only accessible to the house on the first floor; the other wing retains C16 or C17 plasterwork from when it was a principal chamber on the first floor and there is a C16 roof structure over. The parlour has a fireplace dated 1668; in the roof space over, against the same wall, is the end plaster and cornice surviving from a former barrel ceiling of what was probably the best chamber in the C17. In the C18 and C19 there has been some remodelling including the rebuilding of much of the front wall, parts of the rear wall, the left-hand side wall, and there is some reused C17 dressed granite masonry incorporated in this work.

Exterior: two storeys. Nearly symmetrical five window east-north-east front with doorway slightly left of middle. Right-hand windows are wider spaced. Chamfered doorway with C19 four-panel door and traceried overlight; circa early C19 sixteen-pane hornless sashes except for horned copy on right of doorway. C17 features in-situ include: chamfered doorway into rear courtyard; blocked three-light mullioned window in the rear wall of the kitchen bay; two round-headed doorways in walls to left of front garden and a sill and jambstone of a former three-light mullioned window near the round-headed doorway in the front wall of the kitchen garden. Reused C17 and possibly earlier masonry includes the head of a three-light mullioned window in the left-hand wall of the left-hand rear wing.

Interior: C16 features: Oak roof structure (rear right-hand wing) with threaded purlins (mostly in-situ), morticed straight collars and probably halved apices (only one side inspected) and possibly C16 plasterwork depicting an apple tree in chamber under. C17 features: Granite lintel (only part visible)of fireplace in parlour with triangular central motif with domed boss, date 1668 and coats of arms of Jones and Lamb families; remains of plaster ceiling (see plan) in roof space over; some chamfered hardwood ceiling beams in the kitchen, some beams in rear right-hand wing decorated with fleurs-de-lys (not visible) and possibly other hidden features. C18 features include some two-panel doors, otherwise C19 features including: ceiling cornices in the parlours, panelled doors, and brass pelmets dated 1851 in the best parlour.

Adjoining the house are extensive walls with adjoining outbuildings. C17 rear courtyard wall linking rear right-hand wing with stables and cartshed parallel to rear of house; high C17 walls flanking the front garden of the house; circa early C19 low wall returning parallel to the front of the house; high walls surrounding rectangular kitchen garden on the left of the house with roofless lean-to piggeries and other outbuildings adjoining these walls. The walls flanking the front garden have pigeon holes near the top. Stable at rear of house incorporate C17 walls and some reused C17 masonry. Walls on the left of the front garden have some C17 features in-situ (see exterior). Of particular interest is a moulded socketted stone on the left-hand wall of the kitchen garden. This stone formerly held a flagstaff so that it could be seen up the Penberth valley from the sea. Granite coped front walls of garden has gateway aligned with doorway of house. The gateway is flanked by granite monolithic piers and there is a good quality circa early-mid C19 wrought iron gate with a cast-iron balustrade over the top rail.

The Penroses are first recorded at Penrose in 1302. In the C16, a Penrose (the Squire) drowned attempting to rescue members of his crew when his ship was wrecked. This son and heir whom he had rescued, was then looked after by the squire's brother, Jan. The son was unhappy and the relationship with his uncle deteriorated. On the day of a wolf hunt the boy disappeared and the uncle appeared to be distressed. Another uncle, Captain William Penrose, later discovered that Jan had paid to have the boy murdered and that the body was buried under an apple tree. Realizing that he had been found out, Jan Penrose went to the malt house in the north wing and hung himself. The chamber in the north wing (formerly the squire's chamber) has plasterwork with an apple tree, thought to be carried out to commemorate these tragic events. The room is said to be haunted. In the C17, Penrose was held by the Jones family. Notable members of the family were: Francis Jones, who was fined in 1640 for his support of the Royalist cause, and Hugh Jones, born 1632, and mentioned by Norden, who was a tyrannous Justice of the Peace.

Listing NGR: SW3767025533

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