Place House | |
---|---|
Location | Fowey, Cornwall, England |
Coordinates | 50°20′09″N4°38′09″W / 50.33587°N 4.63593°W |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
Designated | 13 March 1951 |
Reference no. | 1218869 |
Place House is a Grade I listed building located in Fowey, Cornwall, England. Home of the Treffry family since the thirteenth century, the original structure was a fifteenth-century tower, which was defended against the French in 1457 by Elizabeth Treffry. It was strengthened soon afterwards, largely rebuilt in the sixteenth century and remodelled in the nineteenth century, the east front dating mostly from 1817 to 1845. [1] The house is not open to the public except on special occasions.
Place House is the seat of the Treffry family, and played an important role in defending the town against the marauding French. The tower is from the fifteenth century and it was here, in 1457, that Elizabeth Treffry led the defence. The tower was strengthened and largely rebuilt in the early sixteenth century. [2]
In 1731 John Treffry left the house, on his death, to his nephew William Toller, who took on the surname of Treffry — in addition to his own — by Act of Parliament. [3]
In 1779 it again came into the possession of two sisters who were not direct descendants of the family After the death in 1808 of William Esco Treffry, it was inherited together with the family estates by his nephew Joseph Thomas Austen, a bachelor, who lived there with his mother. He changed his name by deed poll to Joseph Treffry in 1836. The house at this time was in a state of disrepair. Starting in 1813, he undertook much rebuilding and renovation, the work continuing for about thirty years. In 1820 he rebuilt the high tower that Elizabeth Treffry had defended so staunchly. He tried to incorporate as much as possible of the Tudor structure into his new building. The house was inherited by the Rev Edward Treffry in the nineteenth century. He is said to have been preaching a sermon when a wrecked vessel was reported. Being keen to share in the spoils, he told his congregation to remain seated while he made his way to the porch. Then saying "Right, now we can all start fair", he joined his congregation in sprinting to the shore. [4]
Place House was designated as a Grade I listed building on 13 March 1951. It is a large house built of stone, dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The south front has two storeys, each with five windows, and a pair of ornamented early sixteenth century bay windows. There are external turrets and a large square tower at the west end with a corbelled and battlemented parapet. The tower was built to replace an earlier tower which fell in the eighteenth century. [1]
Madeline Agar designed the garden at Place House in the 1920s. The rose garden and the rockery are still in existence. [5]
Elizabeth Treffry's defence is commemorated in Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poem 'Fowey Harbour, and Polruan Castle, &c.', published 1831.
The Battle of Lostwithiel took place over a 13-day period from 21 August to 2 September 1644, around the town of Lostwithiel and along the River Fowey valley in Cornwall during the First English Civil War. A Royalist army led by Charles I of England defeated a Parliamentarian force commanded by the Earl of Essex.
Polruan is a coastal village in the parish of Lanteglos-by-Fowey in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is bounded on three sides by water: to the north by Pont Creek, to the west by the River Fowey and to the south by the English Channel and neighbours village Bodinnick to the north, connected by a 4-mile walk along the hill tops. Polruan is very steep and well protected from the prevailing winds and Polruan Pool is a haven for small boats.
The River Fowey is a river in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.
Fowey is a port town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Fowey in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town has been in existence since well before the Norman invasion, with the local church first established some time in the 7th century; the estuary of the River Fowey forms a natural harbour which enabled the town to become an important trading centre. Privateers also made use of the sheltered harbourage. The Lostwithiel and Fowey Railway brought China clay here for export.
Castles are buildings that combine fortifications and residence, and many were built within the borders of modern Scotland. They arrived in Scotland with the introduction of feudalism in the twelfth century. Initially these were wooden motte-and-bailey constructions, but many were replaced by stone castles with a high curtain wall. During the Wars of Independence, Robert the Bruce pursued a policy of castle slighting. In the Late Middle Ages, new castles were built, some on a grander scale as "livery and maintenance" castles that could support a large garrison. Gunpowder weaponry led to the use of gun ports, platforms to mount guns and walls adapted to resist bombardment.
Par is a village and fishing port with a harbour on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is situated in the civil parish of Tywardreath and Par, although West Par and the docks lie in the parish of St Blaise.
Restormel Castle lies by the River Fowey near Lostwithiel in Cornwall, England, UK. It is one of the four chief Norman castles of Cornwall, the others being Launceston, Tintagel and Trematon. The castle is notable for its perfectly circular design. Once a luxurious residence of the Earl of Cornwall, the castle was all but ruined by the 16th century. It was briefly reoccupied and fought over during the English Civil War, but was subsequently abandoned. It is now in the care of English Heritage and open to the public.
St Catherine's Castle is a Henrician castle in Cornwall, England, built by Thomas Treffry between approximately 1538 and 1540, in response to fears of an invasion of England by France and the Holy Roman Empire. The D-shaped, stone fortification, equipped with five gun-ports for cannon, overlooked the mouth of the River Fowey in Cornwall. It was protected by a curtain wall and the surrounding cliffs. The castle remained in use for many years until it was closed at the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. Brought back into service in 1855 during the Crimean War, it was fitted with two new artillery positions, but it soon became obsolete and was abandoned. During the Second World War the castle was refortified and used to house a battery of naval guns, protecting the coast against the threat of German attack. At the end of the conflict the castle was restored to its previous condition and is now managed by English Heritage as a tourist attraction.
The Cornwall Minerals Railway owned and operated a network of 45 miles (72 km) of standard gauge railway lines in central Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It started by taking over an obsolescent horse-operated tramway in 1862, and it improved and extended it, connecting Newquay and Par Harbours, and Fowey. Having expended considerable capital, it was hurt by a collapse in mineral extraction due to a slump in prices. Despite its title, it operated a passenger service between Newquay and Fowey.
The Luxulyan Valley is the steep sided and thickly wooded valley of the River Par, situated in mid Cornwall, England, UK. It contains a major concentration of early 19th century industrial remains, and was designated as part of a World Heritage Site in 2006.
Joseph Austen Treffry was an engineer, mining adventurer, and industrialist who became a significant landowner in Cornwall, England.
Treffry is a Cornish surname. The first record of the name Treffry is found in Cornwall, where they lived at Treffry near Lanhydrock. A Roger Treffry was born about 1260 and his descendant John Treffry was living in 1658.
Pujols is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department in south-western France.
The Loving Spirit was the first novel of Daphne du Maurier and was published in 1931 by William Heinemann. The book takes its name from a line in the poem "Self-Interrogation" by Emily Brontë.
Menabilly is a historic estate on the south coast of Cornwall, England, situated within the parish of Tywardreath on the Gribben peninsula about 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Fowey.
Lanteglos is a coastal civil parish in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is on the east side of the tidal estuary of the River Fowey which separates it from the town and civil parish of Fowey. The South West Coast Path runs along the southern coasts of the parish and much of the southern part of the parish lies in the Polruan to Polperro Site of Special Scientific Interest managed by the National Trust.
Polmear is a hamlet in Cornwall, England, UK. It is located on the A3082 road close to Par Sands and the village of Par. Part is in the civil parish of Fowey and part in Par and Tywardreath parish. The centre of Fowey is some 3 miles (4.8 km) distant, whilst Par railway station is less than 1 mile (1.6 km) away. Polmear used to be known as East Polmear and West Polmear is now known as Charlestown, and has been since Charles Rashleigh built the harbour there.
Thomas Treffry, of Place at Fowey, was an English businessman, administrator and politician from Cornwall.
Par Docks is an Imerys-owned harbour in the village of Par, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, which was used for the export of china clay from the numerous Imerys sites in the clay-rich region of Mid-Cornwall.
Fowey Town Hall is a municipal building on the Town Quay in Fowey, Cornwall, England. The structure, which serves as meeting place of Fowey Town Council, is a Grade II listed building.