The Significance of Old Duchy Palace

Like many historic buildings, Old Duchy Palace had different roles through time. It is the only complete building surviving from a much larger complex including a Great Hall that once occupied over 2 acres along the riverside. Below is a summary from Eric Barry’s report in 2009 on the building’s significance:

Old Duchy Palace is unique in Cornwall and is now an icon of Cornish culture and history – probably the largest medieval secular building that was ever built in Cornwall and it is the largest medieval secular building to survive. The Palace was celebrated as the building that was central to the administration of Cornwall and as the medieval centre of its former great mining industry. It was the seat of the Stannary (tinners) Parliament until 1752. It is arguably the first, and also the oldest surviving, ‘count house’ (account or counting house) relating to the Cornish tin industry.

These is no other building in the county that can claim so many important original or former functions.

It once housed the earliest known strong-room relating to business activity in Cornwall and the surviving vaulted undercroft of the former Convocation Hall may be part of the secure storage of the original building. It was once the most important Stannary building in Cornwall and also hosted the County Court and the Stannary Court. These is no other building in the county that can claim so many important original or former functions.

The Convocation Hall is an integral part of the whole Duchy Palace. It is now under separate ownership and is the most recognisable element of the medieval building.

Many of the alterations made in the 1850s and 1870s are generic to Cornish and other Victorian buildings at that time. The Masonic features and Lodge arrangements are similar to those found in other Lodges of the period, however no similar examples of window glazing have been identified and therefore the glazing at the Convocation Hall is considered to be a rare example.