Exotic gardens that delight and surround a Grade II-listed manor for sale in Cornwall

Yesterday saw the launch onto the market in Country Life of historic, Grade II-listed Trenarth Manor, which sits in 120 acres of rolling pasture and woodland on the north bank of the lovely Helford River in south Cornwall, two miles from the village of Constantine and five miles south-west of Falmouth.

The sale of Trenarth, for the first time in more than 30 years, is being handled by Falmouth-based Jonathan Cunliffe and James Toogood of Savills Country Department, who quote a guide price of £4.5 million for the idyllic small country estate.

For more than 800 years, Trenarth has been home to owners who lived, worked and farmed on its fertile, south-facing slopes and probably chose the site for its proximity to the river, abundant woodland for fuel and grazing and readily available stone for building. In the 17th century, Trenarth was the seat of the Trenerth family and passed, in 1661, to Henry Trefusis of Treviades, after his marriage to heiress Anne Trenerth in 1658. In the early 18th century, Trenarth went from the Trefusises to the Nicholas family, who owned it until 1842.

In his A History of the Parish of Constantine in Cornwall (1937), Cornish historian Charles Henderson describes the manor as ‘an interesting building consisting of an Elizabethan courtyard to which a large square block was added at the end of the 18th century. The Court is entered from the farm road by a massive archway of granite, seven feet high. The building on the right hand or northern side of it was the main part of the Elizabethan mansion, but, since the erection of the Georgian block, has been used for a kitchen or servants’ quarters… The Georgian wing has a plain but dignified front facing South West. It contains pleasant lofty rooms. In one of these is a good “Adam” mantelpiece’.

A range of outbuildings was incorporated into the main structure in the later 19th century. A modern garden room, added in 2002, completes the internal layout of the house, set at 300ft above sea level with uninterrupted views over its fields, woods and streams, which lead down to Port Navas creek and the Helford River.

The present dynamic owner, Lucie Nottingham, was looking for a holiday home in Cornwall, when, in 1992, she happened on Trenarth and was immediately smitten. Since then, she has overseen the renovation of the 5,900sq ft manor house, which offers an entrance hall, five reception rooms, kitchen/breakfast room, 17th-century refectory, grand principal-bedroom suite, two further bedrooms, three bathrooms and a one-bedroom ‘granny wing’. Its adjoining, one-bedroom East Cottage, currently arranged as a self-contained apartment, could easily be restored to the main house to provide two additional bedrooms.

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To the rear of the house, a collection of charming converted barns, comprising five letting cottages, are arranged around a former farm courtyard to provide a further 4,900sq ft of living space. Nearby, up a separate drive, stands a derelict bungalow in a delightful setting, which has planning consent to rebuild as a four-bedroom family home.

Historically focused on practical horticulture, Trenarth’s 18th-century garden walls once enclosed vegetable and fruit gardens, with three orchards noted on a 19th-century estate map. Early landscaping features include a lone Monterey pine and remnants of a 19th-century avenue.

By the 1950s, the estate supported a gardening business producing cut flowers and traces of greenhouses are still evident in the restored potting shed. In the 1960s, a large orchard, yew-hedged garden ‘rooms’, terrace walls and shelterbelts were introduced and, over the past 28 years, the gardens have been expanded to cover three to four acres, retaining a strong framework of hedges and walls.

Today, the gardens are wonderfully diverse and feature a sheltered 16th-century courtyard, formal walled gardens, an orchard and a vegetable patch. The mild climate enables ambitious planting and ensures year-round colour and variety. Recent additions include a gravel garden with granite and palms, a bog garden and a beech walk.

Trenarth’s gardens are well described in Tim Hubbard’s Secret Gardens of Cornwall (2023) and have been open for many years in aid of the National Garden Scheme, Cornwall Wildlife Trust, Cornwall Hospice Care and Cornwall Heritage Trust.

Trenarth Manor is for sale with Savills and Jonathan Cunliffe for £4.5 million. For more information and pictures, click here.