Launcells Barton

Launcells Barton is a farmhouse of complex development, comprising two ranges of circa 1600 origin adjoining a block built between 1765 and 1777 by Sir John Call for his sister.

The early ranges are constructed in stone rubble with slate roofs. The late 18th-century block is stone rubble with long and short granite quoins and brick dressings, also with a slate roof. The plan reveals a complex building history. The original house appears to have been built on a north-south axis, with a through passage largely intact. Below the through passage, the present circa 1600 house consists of two adjoining ranges running west-east and parallel to the passage. A truncated projecting stack on the west wall (now the end wall) probably served the lower end of the original through passage house. Sir John Call is said to have demolished part of the old house and reused the stone in his design, forming service rooms from what remained.

The Call house is double depth in plan with a central hall staircase linking it to the old house. The front of the early house is two-storey with a hipped roof at the left end; a break in the plane of the front and large granite quoins indicate alterations. An enclosed stone porch has a slate gabled roof and a four-centred brick arch to the outer doorway. To the left of the porch is a ground floor window with tripartite timber sash with glazing bars, now rehung as a casement opening horizontally under a timber lintel. To the right is a nine-pane timber sash. The first floor window on the left is a timber sash with six panes per light. Above the porch is a high window under the eaves, consisting of a pair of timber sashes inserted in one aperture with a timber mullion, each sash having nine panes per light.

The late 18th-century adjoining block is two storeys and basement with a hipped roof with central gulley and a three-bay front. A double flight of steps leads up to the front door with original painted turned balusters and ramped handrail. The basement is lit by two oculi with glazing bars and brick surrounds and arches. A two-leaf glazed front door has 16 panes under a fanlight with glazing bars. The doorway has a small entablature on tall consoles with enriched paterae. Venetian windows to either side have brick arches and timber sashes with glazing bars. A platband runs at first floor level. First floor windows under brick arches are three timber sashes, each with six panes per light. An extremely tall stair window on the left end lights the stair linking the Call build to the earlier house. A tall rear stair window has a round-headed timber sash with glazing bars and marginal glazing.

The interior of the rear range of the earlier house has an arched doorway and massive timber arched door into the east end of the former through passage, which has been partly altered as a dairy. A 18th-century plaster barrel ceiling covers the stair, above a circa 1600 roof. A first floor room to the left of the front range has a large fireplace with a chamfered granite lintel. The circa 1600 roof has collars mortised into principals. The interior of the late 18th-century build has an open well stair with turned balusters and ramped wreathed handrail. The ground floor room on the left has a moulded plaster cornice and dado. The ground floor room to the rear right is panelled throughout with circa 1720s panelling, possibly reused when parts of the earlier house were dismantled. A contemporary landscape painting in a fixed frame is on the west wall of the stair well. Six-panel doors run throughout the ground floor. The west end of the earlier house retains granite hoodmoulds to two first floor windows, one with label stops, and a truncated projecting lateral stack with offsets.

The remains of probably medieval carp ponds survive in the valley below the house. Launcells Barton was in the possession of Hartland Abbey and became a cell of the Austin Canons. It was purchased by the Chamond family in 1553. It was eventually leased to the Reverend Cadwallader Jones, whose brother-in-law, Sir John Call, designed the late 18th-century extension. Call also designed and rebuilt Whiteford House in Stoke Climsland, the seat of the Call family, in 1775, and as High Sheriff of Cornwall, Bodmin gaol in 1779.