Near Newquay, in Cornwall, Trerice is an Elizabethan manor of rare elegance, rebuilt by the Arundells, one of the great Cornish gentry families. Its front with scrolled gables and its great mullioned window make it a jewel of late-sixteenth-century domestic architecture.
The rebuilding of 1572
The Arundells had owned Trerice since the fourteenth century. But it was around 1572, in the full reign of Elizabeth I, that Sir John Arundell rebuilt the manor in the new taste, giving it its present E-plan form — a discreet homage to the queen. The date '1572' is carved on the chimneypiece of the great hall, the dated signature of the work. This great hall, lit by an immense multi-mullioned window, with its minstrels' gallery and its plaster chimneypiece, embodies the refinement of the Elizabethan gentry, eager for comfort and display.
A family of admirals and scholars
The Arundells of Trerice illustrate the many facets of the Tudor gentry. Sir John Arundell 'Jack of Tilbury' (1495-1561) was vice-admiral under Henry VIII and was knighted at the Battle of the Spurs (1513). His descendant John Arundell was High Sheriff of Cornwall. The family also counted, by alliance, the antiquary Richard Carew, son-in-law of the house, author of the Survey of Cornwall (1602) — a pioneering enquiry into the county's history and geography, a precious source on Elizabethan Cornwall. To see: the great hall with its mullioned window, the plaster chimneypiece dated 1572, the minstrels' gallery, the great oak refectory table (about 6 m, too large to be taken out of the hall).
Did you know?
The table of Trerice's great hall — a monolith of oak nearly six metres long — is a prisoner of the room it furnishes: too long to pass through the door, it was assembled on the spot and has never left since. Like so much furniture of the great Tudor houses, it belongs to the house more than to the family: people moved, but the table stayed.
Notes
Trerice lies at Newlyn East, near Newquay, Cornwall; a National Trust property, open to visits. Seasonal hours to check.
Quiz
- From when does the rebuilding of Trerice date?
- From c. 1572 (date carved on the chimneypiece)
- From 1066
- From the eighteenth century
- Which antiquary, allied to the Arundells, wrote the Survey of Cornwall?
- Richard Carew
- John Stow
- William Camden
- What is particular about the great hall table?
- Too large to remove, it has never left the room
- It is of gold
- It belonged to the king