Description

SW 7026-7126 CONSTANTINE

10/2 Bonallack Barton Cottages Nos 1 and 2 10.7.57

GV II*

Wing of a larger house, converted into a pair of attached cottages. Probably C16 parlour wing of an earlier medieval house converted into a pair of cottages and extended in late C19. Shale rubble with granite dressings. Grouted scantle slate roof with gable ends and red clay ridge tiles. Lower scantle slate roof to single storey wing at right hand end. 2 granite ashlar axial ridge stacks with moulded cornices and weathered caps, red brick shaft to right hand end stack. Plan: The existing building is a long single depth 2-storey range of 5 rooms and a small single storey unheated 1-room plan wing set back at the right hand end. This range is the result of a late C19 conversion to a pair of cottages from what was probably the parlour wing of a substantial medieval house. The large parlour at the left hand end of the existing range has an axial stack at its right hand end and a large 8-light window at the front; the heated chamber above has a garderobe adjacent to the stack. There is a smaller room to the right heated from a gable end (now axial) stack, direct entry from a front doorway and a chamber above with access through a doorway in the front wall, presumably originally with external stairs, unless this door-way has been inserted later. The late C19 conversion involved inserting partitions into the parlour and right hand room and the addition of a 2- storey 1-room plan extension at the right hand end with a gable end stack, and also the addition of a small single storey unheated wing set back at the extreme right hand end. G.S. Gilbert in 1820 described Bonallack: "The ruins of the house are extremely picturesque. The great hall lately had considerable portions of stained glass, but it is in a very ruinous state, as are also the chapel and other detached buildings". None of these "detached buildings" survives but it seems that the surviving range is only a wing of what must have been a quite substantial house, with a great hall and a chapel, which was first licenced in 1374. Exterior: 2-storeys. Long asymmetrical 5 window south east front. The 4 windows to the left are the wing of the original house. The ground floor left hand window is a very long 8-light granite mullion window with flat chamfers and a hoodmould. One mullion has been removed and a plank door inserted, On the first floor above 2 smaller. 3-light mullion windows. To the right of centre of the original part a double-chamfered 4-centre arch granite doorway with water-leaf type stops, now blocked; a late C19 2-light casement to the right with glazing bars and a small single-light casement with glazing bars above. To the right on the first floor a double chamfered grantite centred arch doorway, partly blocked as a fixed-light window with glazing bars. The 1-window range to the right has a late C19 2-light casement on each floor with glazing bars, granite lintels and slate cills, and a doorway to the left with a granite lintel and C20 plank door. Set back to the right the single storey 1-window wing with a small sash. The rear elevation is blank except for two C20 single-light casements and 2 late C19 sashes. The garderobe window to the right of centre on the first floor is blocked. To the right a C20 concrete block outshut conceals a C19 door-day at the extreme right hand end with a C19 4-panel door. The straight masonry joint in the left hand (south west) gable end wall suggests a blocked doorway. Interior: The large parlour at the left end has a C19 partition to form a kitchen at the left hand end; the C19 straight staircase against the partition has stick balusters and a turned newel. There is a large granite fireplace at the right hand end with a moulded 3-centred arch and moulded stops; large closely-spaced chamfered ceiling cross-beams with hollow step stops and a very long moulded lintel to the front window with alternating cavetto and ovolo mouldings. The chamber above the parlour has a moulded granite basket arch fireplace with moulded stops and a nice Victorian cast-iron grate. The small closet to the left of the fireplace was probably the garderobe; it has a wooden doorframe with fern-leaf spandrels and a small blocked window slit. The smaller room to the right is also partitioned and divided between the 2 cottages; at the right end there is an original granite fireplace with a deep chamfered Tudor arch, the stops are concealed. Roof: The roof space was inaccessible; the feet of the principals were not visible in the first floor rooms, therefore the roof structure may have been replaced in the C19. Bonallack was the seat of the Bonallack family until the C12 when it passed by marriage to the Gerveys. It was held by the Gerveys family until 1671 when it passed again by marriage to the Grylls. In circa 1860, Colonel S.M. Gryll established his family seat at Lewarne, St Neat, and built a large house here, Bonallack Barton qv, for his tenant James Tyacke; the old house by then had been reduced to farm-workers cottages. Source: Charles Henderson. A History of the Parish of Constantine in Cornwall. pages 124 to 132 C.S. Gilbert. Survey of Cornwall. 1820, Volume 1, page 780

Listing NGR: SW7185626453

External Links

• Wikidata Q17556081

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Recommended Books

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  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
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  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
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  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
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  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)