Tresillian House, St Newlyn East

Tresillian House
Entrance drive to Tresillian House
General information
Type	Country house
Location	Near St Newlyn East, Cornwall
Country	England
Coordinates	50°23′9″N 5°1′4″W / 50.38583°N 5.01778°W / 50.38583; -5.01778

Tresillian House is a country house near St Newlyn East, off the A3058 road, Cornwall, England. It was registered as a Grade II listed building on 30 May 1967. It is most associated with the Bennet family historically; John Bennet, Curate of Antony was once owner of the house and in 1837 it was occupied by Richard Gully Bennet, who was a Magistrate of Cumberland. Tresillian means "a place of eels" in Cornish.

The house is dated to the late 18th-century but was extended in the mid 19th-century for the Gully-Bennett family. It is a two storey house, made of gritstone and granite flush quoins, with a dalabole slate roof and twelve paned windows with Georgian glazed panels, five of them at the front. The central entrance hall on the north-east front leads to a large oak staircase and the library (refurbished in late 19th -early 20th century) and main drawing room are located on the south-east side. The drawing room has a central floral rose and a Carrara marble chimneypiece. It was recently restored by Robert Rowett Architectural Services.

In 2000 Tresillian was purchased by George Edward Silvanus Robinson (born 1956), who was a founding partner of the City of London hedge fund Sloane Robinson, founded in 1993, which in 2008 was the sixth biggest European hedge fund with assets under management of $15.1 billion, but in 2012 ranked 32nd with $3 billion in assets. His wealth was estimated in 2009 by The Sunday Times Rich List at £100 million and in 2012 by the Daily Mail Newspaper at £220 million. He is a prominent donor to the Conservative Party and in 2004 was appointed a trustee of the right-wing think-tank Policy Exchange. Tresillian had been purchased from the Bennet family after World War II by his maternal grandfather, a noted gardener and specialist breeder of daffodils, who created the Summerscourt daffodil, a variety of narcissus. George's mother spent her childhood at Tresillian. He kept on the head gardener since 1985, John Harris, now a well-known gardening expert and broadcaster who follows the principles of Moon gardening, plant management in accord with the phases of the moon.