Description

SX 45 NW TORPOINT SALAMANCA STREET

3/338 Tor House and
terrace walls and piers
6.2.74
II*

House, with terrace walls and piers. Dated 1792, built for Joshua Rowe, the
Droprietor of the Crinnis mines, near St Austell; formerly called Crinnis House.
Very few later alterations. Stuccoed stone rubble; hipped slate roof with central
brick stack, deep bracketed eaves.
Double depth plan, with central entrance hall leading to stair well to rear. Ground
floor has principal room to front right and left, with service rooms to rear; first
floor has principal rooms along front with smaller rooms to right and left sides;
service stair to rear right. Principal rooms heated from the central paired stack.
3 storeys on plinth, and 3 bays. Ground floor has central Tuscan porch, on 3 moulded
steps, with pilasters to rear, paired columns to front and entablature without a
cornice, half-glazed double doors with decorative fanlight. French window to right
and left with Gothic margin glazing and overlights. First floor has similar sashes,
cill band course and floating cornices. Attic storey has 3 C20 6-pane ights and cill
band course. The house stands on a terrace with central flight of 14 granite steps,
Dedestal to each side with plain top and reeding to sides, moulded panels to fronts;
the rendered terrace wall is about one metre high and extends about 10 metres to
right and left.
Left side of 3 bays, with ground floor central C20 light and blind window to right;
first floor has two 12-pane sashes to left and blind window to right; 2nd floor has
3 C20 6-pane lights. Band courses returned from front. Right side also of 3 bays,
with same pattern of fenestration and band courses returned. Rear of 3 bays, all
blind windows, except round-headed stair light at first floor centre, with splayed
glazing bars remaining in fanlight. Ground floor window to left blocked. Attached
to centre, a 2-storey flat roofed service wing, dated 1792 on small gabled addition,
with 6-pane light at first floor to centre.
Interior Tor House has exceptionally fine plasterwork throughout; it is unusual in
that the scheme of decoration is continued through to the attic storey, with very few
alterations. The entrance has a double vault, with pilasters at the springing of the
arches and round-headed recess to left and right in the first vault; 2nd hall bay,
also vaulted. has 6-panelled door to left and right to principal rooms. All the
vaulting has decorative plasterwork. The stair well to rear is also vaulted, open-
well stair with wreathed handrail to Tuscan column newel, cast iron balusters with a
lyre-pattern baluster to. alternate steps. 6-panelled doors to right and left from
stair hall leading to kitchen to left and butler's pantry and service stair to right.
The stair well is bowed at the rear. The room at ground floor right has bowed rear,
triglyph and mutule frieze with flowers and masks: there are doors to front
entrance, door to rear stair hall and to rear service and cupboards, all 6-panelled
with moulded architraves and panelled jambs and soffits, door to rear left or room
curved with the bow of the rear of the room. Dado panelling and fine marble
chimneypiece to inner side, which has a mask of Bacchus. Fine plaster ceiling rose.
The room to front left has fleur-de-lys and oak leaf plaster cornice, dado panelling
and 6-panelled door. This room does not have a bowed rear, as the kitchen is to rear
left; this also has moulded plaster cornice, and retains the kitchen fireplace to
inner side wall, with wide segmental head, mantel with keystone and slate pilasters.
The cornice in the butler's pantry to rear right is concealed by C20 lower ceiling.
Narrow open well service stair to rear right.
At first floor the landing is also vaulted, with similar plasterwork; as at ground
floor, all doors are 6-panelled, in mahogany, with moulded architraves and panelled
jambs and soffits. There are secondary rooms to rear and centre, right and left, all
with plaster cornices, and the principal rooms are along the front, two to right
connected by double doors, forming the ballroom. These have fine plaster cornices
and ceiling roses, and reeded marble chimneypieces to the rear of the rooms. The
connecting double doors are panelled, in an architrave with Greek key moulding.
At 2nd floor, the rooms have plainer plaster cornices, all panelled doors. The
windows have a splayed fan design at the top corners of the architraves. The 2nd
floor landing also has fine plasterwork to the vaulting, cornice with acanthus, egg
and dart beading.
The quality of detail throughout the house is very high and remarkably complete.

Listing NGR: SX4389755051

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17532440

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey