Description

SW 62 NE SITHNEY

5/271 Truthall House
-
10.7.57
GV II

House, built as an extension to a C17 extension of C15 and C16 house and
incorporating older fabric. Circa late C19, incorporating circa mid-C19 and possibly
C17 walls. Granite rubble walls and dressed granite architectural features including
quoins, an ashlar porch, mullioned windows and copings. Dry Delabole slate roofs
with copings to 2 cross-gables at the front and the roofs stepped down to uncoped
gables at the rear and with a roof parallel to the front at the rear, left. Tall
dressed granite lateral stack over the right hand wall rising from a canted-on-plan
weathered chimney breast; on the left another dressed granite later stack near the
ridge of a small wing set back on the left, and a brick shaft over the gable end of
the courtyard facing wing.
Plan: double-depth slightly irregular plan with 2 roughly equal reception rooms at
the front with an entrance and stair hall between; at rear left a parallel circa
early C19 wing retained as a service wing; at rear right another room, remodelled
from possibly C17 fabric as a service cross wing (part of its rear wall is integral
with the C17 courtyard wall qv. and the present occupier has found a chamfered
granite doorframe (not inspected) leading between this room and the front, presumably
C17 in-situ or resited complete) and set back on the left is small wing in the angle
between this C19 house and Truthall qv. The circa early C19 wing (rear left)
communicates with Truthall qv. via a doorway incorporating reused C17 dressed
granite. Victorian Tudor Gothic style.
2 storeys plus attics in the front cross wings. Nearly symmetrical 3-bay south front
of central entrance bay flanked by wide cross gables. Central embattled porch with
waisted corners over tall plinths and under the imposts of a chamfered 4-centred
arched doorway. The arch is constructed of voussoirs and the parapet string cornice
is aligned with the ones over the bay windows to the middle of the gable ends left
and right. Over the porch is a squat 4-light mullioned window slightly off-centre
towards the right. The 4-light mullioned bay windows are 2 storeys high and are
surmounted by embattled parapets. Above the parapets are mullioned windows in the
gables, a 2-light window left and 3-light window right. The principal drawing room,
ground floor right, has a tall single light window on either side of the bay window.
The gable copings are carried on moulded kneelers (3 courses) left and right.
The right (east) side facing the road is also well detailed with 3 single light
ground floor windows and 3 2-light mullioned first floor windows; the right hand bay
is stepped down and between the left hand and middle windows is a dressed granite 2-
stage chimney with 2 cornices rising from it. The windows of both these fronts are
original horned sashes with glazing bars to the upper sashes only.
At the rear are 4 circa mid-C19 12-pane hornless sashes.
Interior partly inspected : little altered since last building phase circa late C19,
the date of the stair and a ceiling cornice in the right hand reception room.
This house relates to Truthall qv. and probably includes fabric and evidence which
would help to understand the C17 and C18 development of Truthall. However this is an
interesting house in its own right and virtually complete.

Listing NGR: SW6545830192

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26596684

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990