Preservation, Conservation, Repair and Refurbishment
New custodians are maintaining Calenick House for the first time in over four decades and it is currently undergoing a major scheme of Preservation, Conservation, Repair and Refurbishment.
Following an extensive period of research, investigative surveys, consultations and formal planning [between Summer 2019 and Autumn 2021], the house is currently in the midst of the resulting periodic restoration project.
Expected to last somewhere between three years and a lifetime, it is a significant project encompassing the entire one acre site that once made up Cornwall’s largest tin smelting house. The site once housed the workshops where the infamous Calenick Crucibles were manufactured as well as featuring ten reverberatory furnaces, two waterwheels, its own leat, stabling, coach house, weigh house and other outbuildings consummate with a house of its stature and purpose, including the prominent clock tower, encasing the one handed clocks movement.
The historic map below depicts the site to the North of the river tinney circa early-1900’s.
While much of the former furnaces as well as the associated chimney stacks etc have long since been demolished, the site remains decipherable with quarried cliff faces and visible topographical remnants in the now pleasant gardens that were likely landscaped circa 1930.
The clock is included in the scope of the restoration project and the movement has been restored to working order, although the owners admit that it is rarely wound during the current restoration. The original bell still hangs inside the spandrel bellcote and is inscribed
William Lemon Esq. 1749, Carclew.
We hope to continue to update this site regularly with all that we have learned so far. Thank you for visiting.
Calenick House 