Set in a landscape of wooded creeks and rolling farmland, much of it owned by the National Trust, the North Helford area stretches along the north bank of the lovely Helford River and is knitted together by the charming villages of Constantine, Port Navas and Helford Passage. Port Navas has its own Yacht Club and restaurant (said to serve ‘probably the best food on the Helford’), which plays host to the annual Port Navas Regatta.
Here, Falmouth-based agent Jonathan Cunliffe quotes a guide price of £1.5 million for Grade II-listed Helland House in the tranquil hamlet of Treverva, between Mabe and Constantine.
This is a classic, handsome Georgian farmhouse built of the local granite and steeped in 700 years of Cornish history. First recorded in 1323, the farmstead is believed to stand on the site of a priory linked to Glasney Abbey, which was destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1548, after which the monks are said to have moved to Helland to live and run the farm there.
The house is set behind an early-medieval burial mound fronted by an exceptionally rare, pre-Norman Celtic cross, intricately carved on all four faces. Beside it, a stone topped with an egg-shaped finial is said to mark the burial place of a cardinal, a nod to their traditional pom-pom-topped hat.
The house’s Grade II listing protects not only the Georgian façade, but also the front gateposts, burial mound and an 18th-century goose-house set into the boundary wall.
Sympathetically restored and extended in conjunction with Marraum Architects of Penryn, Helland House combines period character with Danish flair throughout the courtyard complex, which offers a total floor area of more than 4,900sq ft.
The space on offer is split between several separate buildings, including the four-bedroom main house, the renovated medieval cottage and a number of characterful outbuildings that include the garden studio (a successful holiday let), and a converted piggery that is now a rustic garden room.
There is also a partially-completed two-storey barn suitable for conversion to a studio, workshop or further accommodation.
The grounds on offer are just as compelling as the buildings. Helland House stands in 1¼ acres of south-facing gardens, which unfold around the courtyards; opposite the house, across the gravelled drive, is a pretty paddock with a spring-fed pond, ideal for a small wildflower meadow, an orchard or further planting.
According to research supplied by the owners, only four families have called Helland House home since 1708. Most recent are the current owners, who bought the property in 2009 and also run the Port Navas Yacht Club. Before that, the Sizer family lived there for 40 years, firstly as tenants and then as owners, having bought the freehold.
They were preceded by the Tylders, who bought the property from the Hext family, prominent local landowners who owned the farm from 1708 to 1960.
Helland House is for sale via Jonathan Cunliffe — see more pictures and details
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