Porthledden

The jewel in Cornwall’s crown

 Porthledden
Cape Cornwall, St Just TR19 7NL

Magnificent coastal house built for Captain Francis Oats,

former chairman of De Beers
10 bedrooms
7 bathrooms
24ftx24ft reception hall
3 reception rooms
38ft family kitchen
Conservatory
3 bedroom apartment
Geo-thermal heat pumps and underfloor heating
Garaging and stable block
Walled gardens
3 paddocks and school
In all about 7.2 acres
Grade II Listed
Awe-inspiring sea and coastal views
Exquisitely restored over a decade

Distances:
Lands End Airport – 3.2 miles
Sennen – 6 miles
Penzance (mainline station) – 8.6 miles
Mousehole – 10 miles
St. Ives – 15 miles
Truro – 35.5 miles
(all distances are approximate)

Savills Cornwall Savills Country Department

Jonathan Cunliffe Charles Chute
01872 243200 020 7016 3822
jcunliffe@[Link] cchute@[Link]
SITUATION
Porthledden occupies a truly magnificent position above England’s
only Cape, and possesses some of the most fascinating, spectacular, sea
and coastal views in the south west of England. The quite incredible
vista takes in the western approaches and Atlantic Ocean with the
beautiful Isles of Scilly on the horizon.
To one side of the Cape lies Priest’s Cove; a traditional fishing cove
with colourful lobster boats and a slipway. Priest’s Cove is wonderful
to swim off and there is a large manmade salt water pool. On the
other side of the Cape you’ll find Porthledden Bay; a wide rocky bay
with plenty of rock pools to explore and good swells for the very
experienced surfer. The South West Coast Path, managed by the
National Trust, borders Porthledden’s grounds and the coastline is
designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and more recently a
World Heritage Site. The coast path runs west towards Cot Valley and
on to two of Cornwall’s finest surfing beaches; Gwenver and Sennen.
Each can be reached within a short drive. Travelling east the coast
path takes you across Kenidjack Valley towards Botallack and Geevor
Tin Mines and the iconic Crowns; two engine houses that perilously
hug the cliff.
The town of St Just is precisely 1 mile inland along Cape Cornwall
Road; there are also green public footpaths (across fields and stone
styles) providing an attractive walk to the town. St Just has a good
sense of community and of its Cornish heritage; both mining and
in more recent years, its artistic community. St Just provides just
about everything one might need with food stores, a greengrocer, a
bakery (the oldest Cornish pasty maker in the World), two butchers,
two cafes, a Post Office, surgery and pharmacy, homemade takeaway
Pizzeria, a fish and chip shop, four pubs (three of which serve food)
and two art galleries.
The St Just to St Ives road is one of the finest drives in Britain. With
spectacular sweeping views down to the sea, ancient field structures,
granite engine houses, rugged moorland and fascinating villages along
the route such as Zennor. Half-way to St Ives you’ll pass the award-
winning Gurnards Head Inn. Indeed West Penwith is noted for its
seafood and other fine restaurants including Ben’s Cornish Kitchen in
Marazion, the Old Coastguard in Mousehole and The Beach Restaurant
at Sennen Cove. St Ives itself offers a multitude of good restaurants
including the Porthminster Beach restaurant, Porthmeor Café and
Seagrass alongwith wonderful galleries including the Tate St Ives and
Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden.
Famously referred to as “The loveliest village in England” by Dylan
Thomas, Mousehole is a short drive away, where pretty stone cottages,
two fine restaurants, the famous Ship Inn and art galleries are
clustered around the sandy beaches of the small medieval harbour.
The harbour-side town of Penzance offers a cinema, theatre, organic
shops, supermarkets and a mainline railway station whilst Chapel
Street is famous for its galleries and historic Georgian architecture.
To the south of Porthledden, the open air Minack Theatre, positioned
high above the incredible Porthcurno beach, attracts visitors from far
and wide, as does the surfing centre of Sennen with its vast stretch of
sand and pounding Atlantic surf.

COMMUNICATIONS
Communications to Cornwall are mostly dual carriageway with the
A30 from the M5 at Exeter to Penzance. The London Paddington-
Penzance mainline ends overlooking Mount’s Bay just yards from the
sea. Its sleeper service departs Penzance late in the evening, pulling in
at Paddington at 5.30am. Nearby Land’s End airport benefitted in the
summer of 2014 with the development of two tarmac runways, while
Newquay airport offers daily flights to London Gatwick. It is worth
noting that the present owners run a successful internet company
with offices in London and Truro, from their home at Cape Cornwall.
HISTORY RESTORATION
Porthledden was built by Francis Oats; a local mining captain This painstaking and meticulous restoration of Porthledden
by the age of 20 and later Chairman of De Beers and close began in 2004 after the present owner’s purchase of the
ally of Cecil Rhodes in South Africa. Francis was brought house. The then 21 bedroom mansion was stripped back to
up in St Just and Cape Cornwall; later held a significant its granite shell with the roof, all 200 windows, lintels and
shareholding in Levant, Cape Cornwall and Kenidjack mines internal surfaces removed. It was then put back together
but made his real fortune in the gold fields and diamond by local Cornish and South West craftsmen but with a few
mines of South Africa at the turn of the 19th and 20th modifications which left the house with 13 larger bedrooms,
centuries. most with en suite bathrooms and other larger room spaces
Francis championed the welfare of the Cornish miners who such as the strikingly spacious kitchen/dining area.
followed him in their droves to South Africa. He ensured De Taking careful account of the stunning coastal location, and
Beers paid for a home visit for each ex-pat miner every year under the direction of the architectural team who look after
and pushed through the introduction of water hydrants to the Duchy properties in West Cornwall, the restoration was
suppress the silicon dust produced by the heavy mining drills professionally approached as a marine project. For example,
which was the main cause of miners’ lung or Silicosis. the only new metals permitted in the reconstruction were
Francis bought the Cape and built Porthledden from the non-ferrous such as bronze for the window casements
rewards he received from his company directorships and and door furniture and marine grade stainless steel for all
leading role in South African mining. Porthledden was fixings. All of the new granite used for flooring, walls and
completed in 1909 and Captain Francis Oats died in the care the terraces is from the same source as the original stone;
of his daughter in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 1918. Cornish silver grey granite from De Lank quarry in Bodmin
Moor. Francis Oats sourced the distinctive roofing slate from
Since Francis Oats built Porthledden as a gentleman’s
Cumbria. Much of Porthledden’s slate had to be replaced but
residence, the house has been a hotel in the 1920s and
very fortunately the property’s blue-green Westmoreland
1930s – with a pioneering landing strip where part of the
slate is still quarried today in the Lake District.
Golf Club now lies. It has also been a gentleman’s club, an
evacuee school for girls during WW2 and a wedding venue.
It lay empty for over twenty years until 2003 when a Grade
II Listing, lobbied for by many people in St Just and Cape
Cornwall, helped to provoke its sale and the subsequent start
of an extensive 10 year restoration program.
MAIN HOUSE
The main house is entered through an inner and outer entrance hall
into a magnificent 24ft square reception hall panelled in English oak
with a central staircase to the first floor, and door to the west-facing
terrace. From this impressive hall, there are three main reception
rooms, including the ‘Elizabethan’ drawing room with its ornate plaster
work ceiling, and a fabulous 38ft family kitchen. All of these rooms
have open fireplaces and sea views taking in the Brisons rocks. The
kitchen was designed by Christian Paul and handmade in quarter sawn
oak by Rozen, and includes an electric four-oven AGA with worktops
in granite and oak. There is a useful utility room off the kitchen which
in turn opens into the inner courtyard. Also off the kitchen is a large
conservatory/plant room.
On the first floor, a huge landing enjoys wonderful views through the
oriel window down over the Cape, the Isles of Scilly on a fine day and
out to sea. Two principal west-facing bedrooms have private exquisite
bathrooms, with three children’s bedrooms sharing a huge bathroom,
again beautifully appointed with great taste and style. There is a useful
laundry room on this level. There are five further bedrooms and four
luxury bathrooms on the second floor, with a door out to a flagstaff
balcony with marine stainless steel flagpole.

GUEST APARTMENT
Accessed separately but also with a link in to the main house, the three
bedroom apartment is a spacious and very well appointed residence in
its own right. A large kitchen – again by Christian Paul and Rozen has
an open vaulted ceiling with exposed A-frames, an AGA Rangemaster,
black granite worktops and oak-topped island unit. A well planned
utility room separates the kitchen-dining room from the twin aspect
sitting room which enjoys wonderful views of the Cape, out to sea and
also over the walled garden. There are two bedrooms and a bathroom on
the ground floor, with a beautiful master suite on the first floor, with its
own luxury bathroom with separate shower.
GARDENS
A broad terrace spans the width of the house on the west
elevation and leads to the large, sheltered walled garden to
the north. This is laid mainly to lawn, but includes a kitchen
garden with raised beds, a potting shed using the same stone
and slate as the main house and a clever sunken children’s
trampoline. From here an archway has been created leading
out into the west paddock, which rolls down towards the
Cape and sea with a pathway through the walled garden
framing the fantastic vista.

LAND & OUTBUILDINGS

As if the magnificent house and sea views weren’t enough,
almost unheard of for a seaside house in the west country
of England, Porthledden has superb equestrian facilities.
A stable block houses four loose boxes, a barn area and a
tack room, whilst there are three paddocks and a school.
Additionally there is a deep triple width garage with three
large hardwood sliding doors to the front. The stable and
garage block is built to the same exacting standard as the
house using the same materials and could easily be adapted
for an alternative purpose. In all, the land including gardens,
lawns and three paddocks, extends to 7.2 acres.
 Porthledden
Gross internal floor area (approx):
Main House: 1083.2 m² / 11,660 ft² (excludes restricted head height)
Stables and Garage: 140.2 m² / 1,509 ft²

For identification only - not to scale

Access
to eaves

Access
to eaves

Stables
3.28 x 2.54
10’9” x 8’4”
Access to eaves

Access
to eaves

Access Access
to eaves to roof

to eaves
Access
Access
to eaves

Ground First Second Stable and

Floor Floor Floor Garage
 Ordnance Survey © Crown Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. Licence number 100022432. Plotted Scale - 1:4486 Reproduced from the Ordnance Survey.
Not to Scale mapping with permission of the
Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
© Crown copyright (100041908)

SERVICES DIRECTIONS IMPORTANT NOTICE

Mains water, electricity and drainage. Two ground source From St Just, follow the road to Cape Cornwall. Continue Savills, their clients and any joint agents give notice that:
heat pumps with under floor heating in the majority of past the school and follow the road towards the sea. The They are not authorised to make or give any representations
rooms supplemented by over 50 fully restored floor-standing gated entrance to Porthledden will be found on the right or warranties in relation to the property either here or
period radiators fitted with superb British brass valves. hand side just after Cape Cornwall Golf Club and shortly elsewhere, either on their own behalf or on behalf of their
Central sound and multi-media system in all reception before the road drops down towards the cove and Cape itself. client or otherwise. They assume no responsibility for any
rooms and bedrooms with hard wired Cat 5 internet cabling, statement that may be made in these particulars. These
in-ceiling speakers, Wi-fi and Bluetooth compatibility. There particulars do not form part of any offer or contract and
is extensive spot-lighting throughout the property which FIXTURES AND FITTINGS
must not be relied upon as statements or representations of
can be dimmed at will with the use of the sympathetically Only those mentioned in these sales particulars are included fact.
designed resistive action toggle switches. in the sale. All others such as curtains, light fittings, garden
ornaments, etc, are specifically excluded but may be available Any areas, measurements or distances are approximate. The
by separate negotiation. text, images and plans are for guidance only and are not
Viewing necessarily comprehensive. It should not be assumed that
Strictly by appointment with Savills. the property has all necessary planning, building regulation
or other consents and Savills have not tested any services, © Peter Channon
equipment or facilities. Purchasers must satisfy themselves
by inspection or otherwise.