One of Truro's grandest houses has come on the market for the first time in almost 100 years and is already attracting “significant interest.”

Tremorvah House, described as being in the Victorian Gothic style, lies at the end of a driveway off Tremorvah Crescent. It was built in 1845 by Sir Philip Prothero Smith, four times former Mayor of Truro and Under-Sheriff of Cornwall, as a home for himself and his new wife.

The house sits among more than one-and-a-half acres of land which were originally public gardens and a popular visitor attraction in the early 1800s. Nothing now remains of the gardens, apart from a belt of mature trees shielding Penhaligon Court from Tregolls Road.

Tremorvah House was bought from Sir Prothero Smith's widow by ship owner, Richard Chellew. On his death in 1929 the estate was sold to the Diocese of Truro. The house was last occupied in the early 1900s as the former head quarters of Cornish Mutual Services.

It is now owned by a consortium of local hoteliers, who also own the nearby Alverton Manor Hotel and the Greenbank Hotel in Falmouth, who have put it on the market.

Rob Redgrave, from Miller Commercial who are jointly marketing the property with agents Vickery Holman, said: “Despite the building's grandeur and its central Truro location, Tremorvah House has been 'off the radar' up until now. It's extremely rate for a property such as this to come onto the market.

“Not surprisingly we have already had serious interest from individuals looking to return the house to a private residence and from developers looking to convert the property into prestige apartments.”