Bark Hill House

Bark Hill House is a house dating from circa 1680 to 1700, with alterations made in the early to mid-19th century. It is constructed of rendered timber frame with a plain tile roof. The building has three framed bays, arranged around a central staircase plan, and extends over two storeys and an attic. A rendered plinth and wooden fascia with a moulded gutter run along the front. Integral rendered brick end stacks are present. The attic features three gabled dormers with leaded wooden casements, two to the right (2-light) and one to the left (3-light).

The front has three bays with 19th-century two- and three-light wooden mullioned and transomed casements, featuring chamfered cills and concave hoods. The central entrance has a six-panelled door (the lower two panels are beaded and flush) with a reeded impost band and a two-part rectangular overlight with geometrical-pattern glazing bars. A reeded architrave and a porch with attenuated cast-iron barleysugar columns, tall thin reeded pilaster strips to the wall, and a shallow gabled top complete the entrance. A cast-iron bootscraper sits to the left. A rendered two-storey rear wing, dating from the early to mid-19th century, also features boxed 16-pane glazing bar sashes and an integral lateral brick stack.

Inside, many fixtures and fittings date from around 1700. The entrance hall has a moulded plaster cornice. An oak dog-leg staircase from about 1700 has winders and half-landings, a closed string, unusual double-twisted (pierced barley-sugar) balusters, a moulded handrail, and square newel posts with moulded caps. A rear room on the ground floor right-hand side has late 17th-century oak panelling with a fluted frieze and moulded cornice. It includes a late 18th-century corner fireplace with a mid-19th-century surround and three circa 1700 bolection-moulded panels above. A rear bedroom to the right contains a circa 1700 fireplace with a lugged architrave, frieze and moulded cornice, and a late 18th-century cast-iron grate. The roof structure comprises collar and tie-beam trusses. A late 17th-century panelled door with L-hinges is located in the left-hand front bedroom. Ground floor doors are six-panelled with moulded architraves. The facade originally comprised five bays, evidenced by a beam ending above the front window in the right-hand ground floor room, and was likely refenestrated during the early to mid-19th century remodelling. This represents a particularly interesting example of late timber framing, typical of its period except for the staircase. No. 28 Dodington is a comparable example, and both buildings may be the work of the same builder.