Description
This site encompasses the whole of the great house of the 16th century at Trerice, with the exception of a lost range on the north which was possibly part of the earlier mansion and retained as part of its Tudor successor, and so is represented by a separate entry (96004).
The house was completed in 1573, the date commemorated on one of its great plaster fireplaces. It was built for Sir John Arundell IV and his second wife Katherine; Sir John was appointed Sheriff of Cornwall in 1574, but did not enjoy his new house very long, dying in 1580 (Trinick 1976, 5).
The surviving ranges on the east and south, with the lost one on the north (96004), would have formed a U-shaped whole, but the east range itself has a typically Elizabethan ‘E’ plan with the three short Dutch-gabled projections forming the bars. The house is three storeys high, and is faced with local yellowy elvan stone, and roofed with slate (Fig 38). Its east front is elaborate, with three full height projecting gabled wings – that in the centre containing the entrance porch - ornate scrolled gables, prominent chimneys, and a vast hall window. The interior layout is based on the traditional medieval plan, having a cross passage through its centre, with a great hall rising through two floors to one side of this. A survey of 1650 mentions a chapel chamber (Cornwall HER). The design of the house is discussed in more detail in the main text (see Section 5.4.3).
The description, below, is intended to provide an outline of this complex site. The present survey does not extend to the interior of the house, and no comprehensive study of it exists, but Eric Berry’s 2003 report on the site of the medieval house also includes very useful wider analysis of the development and function of its successor. This forms the basis of the following summary, in which the emphasis is on the evidence for the relationship of the house with its surroundings.
East range
Running through the centre of the main, east facing range, from the porch wing, is the cross passage with gallery above. South of this is the great hall with its famous massive window filling the façade, and behind that on the west a covered passage serving the kitchens, with a gallery above. North of the through passage, the range is rebuilt, apart from the front elevation up to the stringcourse at second storey level (see 96009). The original layout here is therefore obscure. Eric Berry notes that on the basis of present knowledge it can be identified only as extra quarters for the Arundell family. He points out that if part of the earlier house is incorporated in the west end of the cross passage’s north wall (see 96002), the kitchen passage with gallery over, running along the rear of the range, could not have continued north of the passage into this north end.
Of the two wings projecting east either side of the porch, that on the south probably provided garderobes for the great hall and great chamber, and gave access to the forecourt through the doorway on its north side; the stairway now rising through it being a later insertion. The wing on the north may have had a different function, again obscured by the rebuilding behind its facing; the doorway on its south seems to be secondary. It is possible that it contained the house’s chapel referred to indirectly in 1650 (Cornwall HER), as it faces east towards Chapel Close, thought to be the site of Trerice’s medieval chapel (see Section 5.3.3).
A view from the north east of 1818 shows that the northern section of the Tudor east range, on the uphill side of the cross passage, was dilapidated and in agricultural use by this date (reproduced in Berry 2003, 15). The northern ornamental gabled wing, at least, and perhaps the whole interior north of the cross-passage, was converted to a store for grain, potatoes, or similar farm produce; a figure outside is depicted bearing away a load in a sack. Windows here and in the upper storey south of the wing were blocked up, and a raised doorway had been opened on the north of the wing, served by a ramp outside (see 96010). The doorway was apparently cut across the stringcourse at third storey level, suggesting that the original flooring had gone within.
Most of the structure, apart from the façade below the stringcourse, collapsed in a storm around 1860 (Quiller-Couch 1911, 212). The worked stones from the upper part of the façade were stored on the south west corner of the forecourt (see 96011) until the structure was rebuilt in the 1950s (96009).
South range
Whether or not remains of the earlier house were incorporated in it, is clear that the eastern three storey section of the south range (Fig 73) was designed as part of the new house in the 1570s; accommodating the parlour with great chamber above at the east end, and the kitchen with two heated chambers above to the west. The semi-circular turret dominating the south face is thought to be the drum of the original principal stair, its bowed window illuminating the great chamber at first floor level being an insertion, perhaps of the 17th century (Berry 2003, 5).
As Berry points out in the 2003 report (10, 14, 15), a picture of 1811 shows the east end of the range with a mullioned second floor window and stringcourse resembling those of the rest of the façade, while another of 1818 shows its present plainer facing with a blind window. It seems then that this wall was rebuilt between these dates for Sir Thomas Dyke-Acland, and originally had a window overlooking the garden (see 96034). Even after this period, the south range was in poor condition. In 1820 it was ‘in a state of rapid decay’, the drawing room within being in a ‘wretched, dilapidated state. Its noble projecting window…. is in great part blocked up’ (Gilbert, 678). The Aclands must have undertaken further repairs here by the early 20th century; the south elevation appears in photographs of this time in fairly good condition, with its great window restored (photographs at RIC library, Truro).
The above evidence for reconstruction under the Aclands would suggest that the south range is the ‘rebuilt portion of the house’ mentioned in the sales particulars of 1915 as having cellars beneath it (copy at Trerice). This might fit with Quiller-Couch’s slightly earlier reference to an underground passage in this area (1911, 213), though Q’s passage is probably more likely to be the conduit known to run under the house (see under 96042).