Tretheague, Stithians, Truro, Cornwall TR3 7AF Guide price £1,500,000

Situation

‘Tretheague’ is set overlooking beautiful parkland just to the south west of the village of Stithians, and centrally located between Truro, Falmouth, Helston and the A30.
The rural village of Stithians has a general stores, garage, public house, church, chapel and junior school. Stithians Agricultural Show, held in July, began in 1834 and is still a great attraction, being one of the largest and best known village ‘one-day’ shows in the West Country. Nearby Stithians lake is a popular venue for sailing and fishing with an extremely active RYA sailing school.
The historic and colourful port of Falmouth lies about 6 miles away with its beaches and world famous yachting facilities surrounding one of the deepest natural harbours in the world. Mylor Yacht Harbour is also a short drive away and probably offers the best marine leisure facilities on the Fal Estuary.
The city of Truro with its fine cathedral and listed Bath-stone Lemon Street has a well regarded shopping centre, and a main line rail service to London Paddington. Further to the north, Newquay Airport provides regular flights to London and many other European destinations.
The area is very well served with both state and private schools for all ages, including Polwhele House Preparatory School, Truro School, Truro High School and the highly rated Truro College, while the Tremough campus (part of Exeter University) is just a few miles away at Penryn.

Description

History The Manor of Tretheague was owned by the ancient Cornish Beville family until the end of the 16th century. Philip Beville of Killygarth died leaving the property to his son in law, Sir Bernard Grenville of Stowe, who sold off various tenements and dismembered the manor as such. The family of Tretheague lived at the property for three centuries until Walter Tretheague died around 1602. They were followed by the Morton Family who did well from mining interests in the county until another wealthy tin adventurer, Nicholas Pearce, who developed Wheal Maudlin at Ponsanooth, took over the old manor in 1690. John Pearce rebuilt the house the year before becoming High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1745 and his descendants sold the property to J M Williams in 1872, another member of a famous Cornish family that prospered from the Cornish mining boom. Under the guise of Williams Cornish Estate the property was sold privately to Bernard Penrose in 1962 who then spent almost 20 years restoring this somewhat unique and unspoilt gem that had remained almost unaltered since the time of its construction.
We understand the present house replaced an Elizabethan house that was recorded as having seven chimneys in the tax of 1660, although only small fragments of mullions and cut and chamfered stone survive. The major rebuild took place around 1744, almost certainly designed and overseen by the famous Greenwich architect Thomas Edwards who presided over several commissions in Cornwall for a period when rich County families and well-todo mining adventurers felt it necessary to show off their new found wealth and elevation in Cornish society. It was a very competitive period when some of the most attractive town and country houses were completed. Edwards brought in William Lorimmer of St Columb, who was noted for his stylistic rococo plasterwork at Carclew, on behalf of Sir William Lemon to undertake the rich and ornate work at Tretheague. He was also inspired by James Gibbs’ Book of Architecture borrowing the blueprint design for the ornate cut granite front door casing that opens out to his characteristic and graduating fan shaped granite steps, still evident in the Mansion House and Princes House in Truro, two of his other commissions. The full height rusticated stonework on the front elevation creates an impression of great strength in a country residence of doll’s house proportions, which also conceals such intricate work of a golden age of design and aesthetics, yet remains practical and serviceable in our day and age. Tretheague represents one of just a few such remaining houses that the Victorian age of decadence passed by.
The Lordship of Kennal
The earliest reference to a link between the Manor of Kennal and Tretheague comes from an ancient deed in the RCI Truro. Robert Carminow who was Lord of Kennal in 1260 “granted to Ralph son of Ralph de Trethaek and his heirs ‘una voleta’ in my wood of Keneld”. A ‘voleta’ was a fowling place probably used for falconry and later on there are references to glades in the wood at Kennal being used for catching woodcock. In 1321 Mathew Penfern, clerk, held the manor of Kennal in trust for the Carminows and an effigy of Sir Roger Carminow and Johanna his wife (he died in 1308) survives in the church at Mawgan-in-Meneage. Lord Talbot of Malahide conveyed the manor to our client on 10th May 1990, including a signed statutory declaration regarding ownership, signed on 10th April 1990. It includes the incorporeal rights of the manor only, no actual land comes with it. The full documentation of the manor is held by our client as researched from Domesday onwards by Sarah Moore M A. Such rights as holding a fair came under this guise in Medieval Cornwall, and the title ‘Lord of the Manor’. The Lordship of Kennal is available by separate negotiation if required.
The House
Country houses of the stature of Tretheague in Cornwall are few and far between, let alone those available for sale in any one year. Built at a time known as the ‘Middle Period’ in architecture, the house embodies the classic ideal with precise detail and rhythmic spacing evident in the West Country houses built by the old architect builders.
The house overlooks beautiful parkland which borders the drive and separates the house from the country lane. This parkland has been the scene of summer cricket matches from time to time and now contains individual specimen trees of lime, Canadian maple, beech and horse chestnut.
An imposing set of granite steps with wrought iron railings rise to the entrance which is at upper ground floor level. Inside the house much of the original period detail is intact, and on the upper ground floor the hall, panelled dining room and magnificent shallow-rise turning staircase feature fine plaster ceilings with modillions and Rococo detail. The dining room retains its original fireplace with plaster frieze and rococo picture frame with Fleur de Lys above, the cornice is heavily embellished with egg and dart moulding picked out and highlighted in gold. The sitting room fireplace was remodelled in Georgian style using old marble and a built up surround, the cornice being classically correct in period moulding. The occasional fifth bedroom/library overlooks the lush walled garden to the rear and has original panelling with an early style dentil cornice and central plaster feature. There is also a remodelled period fireplace and cupboards on either side.
The kitchen with oil Aga is on the lower ground floor and complimented by a useful range of ancillary rooms, two of which have wonderful painted brick barrelled ceilings. There are four bedrooms on the first floor besides a bathroom and shower room. From this floor a small staircase leads up to the attic level and the airing cupboard is accessed at this level via the old staircase to the first floor. The landing that serves the bedrooms is lit by a fine full depth window with fanlight, and handsome architectural mouldings with spaced brackets, and bold scrolled corbels adorn the cornice work, giving a masculine feel to the ceiling offset by the intricately worked central ceiling panel over the stairwell. Two attractive heavily modelled plaster wall panels are richly decorated with architectural features of Fleur de Lys on the staircase and there are further portrait panels in the hall.
Stable Cottage
Converted in 1971 and once a stable block and carriage house with hay loft over, the charming cottage lies behind the walled garden of the main house and represents an exceedingly pretty house in its own right, with bellcote on the roof. From the front, views of the mature camellias and rhododendrons can be enjoyed in the spring and there is a delightful cottage garden through which the leat runs, presently stocked with shrubs and plants and accessed via granite steps. The cottage is currently laid out with two bedrooms, but we feel could be re-planned if desired, perhaps taking in the integral ground floor store.
Gardens, grounds and outbuildings
Tretheague is well protected by its own grounds which extend to some 17 acres mainly to the north east and south west, and include the aforementioned parkland with wrought iron railing, secluded walled garden with ponds, connected to the house by a stone ‘bridge’ with ancient stores under, a large meadow descending to a tributary that feeds in to the Kennal River, a field and two smaller paddocks. A leat from this same source runs through the land from south west to north east and there is a stone-flagged ‘moat’ immediately around the house. Tretheague owns the drive from the road, which also gives access to a handful of other homes immediately to the west. There is an enclosed lean-to store (44′ × 14′ approx’) behind Stable Cottage, and two open-fronted field stables, one in each paddock. Accessed up a private track past the neighbouring properties there is a walled and gated concrete yard (80′ × 52′ approx’) with open-fronted 3 bay barn of 45′ × 16′, extremely useful for the storage of agricultural machinery and/or boats.

Accommodation

Directions

From Truro: Follow the main A39 in the Falmouth, turning off at Carnon Downs following signs for Perranwell Station. Follow the road through the village leaving the Royal Oak public house on your right hand side. Follow this road to the crossroads near Ponsanooth. Take the road straight ahead for Stithians. Follow this road into and through the village and the entrance to Tretheague will be found on the right hand side
about half a mile after leaving the village.
From Falmouth: Follow the main road from Falmouth/Penryn towards Helston. After passing Longdowns, take the right turn near the top of the hill by a garage. Follow to the next Tjunction and turn right. Follow this road towards Stithians and the entrance to Tretheague is on the left just after the stone bridge.