The Barton

The Barton is a house now partly used as a nursing home, with adjoining garden walls and railings. Dating from the late 16th century and built on an earlier site, it is constructed of stone rubble with a rag slate roof featuring a hipped end to the right and a gable end to the front left. Brick shafts rise from stone rubble axial, end and lateral stacks.

The plan is complex, reflecting 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th century extensions, remodelling and alterations. The original arrangement and size of the house is uncertain. The existing building is of overall L-shaped plan and appears to have been divided into two houses during the 19th and 20th centuries. The nursing home now occupies the main range, while private accommodation and several unused rooms are in the front left-hand wing.

The house probably originally comprised the main range, which was likely of at least a 3-room plan. The lower end to the right may have been heated by an axial stack backing onto the passage, the hall by a rear lateral stack and the inner room by an end stack on the left. A room was probably added on the higher side of the inner room in the late 16th or early 17th century, and the house was extended again around the early to mid-17th century with a front left wing of two-room and cross-passage plan. 17th, 18th and 19th century service outshots are present to the rear of the main range and left-hand side of the front wing. Around the 18th century the plan was altered: the main range hall fireplace was blocked, a fireplace was inserted in the back of the lateral stack to heat a service outshot to the rear, the passage and entrance were altered, the fireplace to the inner room was reversed to heat the hall, and the hall was divided into two rooms.

Several straight joints are visible. Several pieces of early joinery have been reset, including a piece of multiple moulded probably 16th century beam reset as a lintel in an outshot and another inserted as a support for a roof truss. A bolection moulded chimney-piece, remains of early 18th century moulded plaster cornice and several 18th century raised and fielded panelled doors indicate late 17th and 18th century alterations.

The exterior displays two storeys with a regular 3:3 window front. The main range has a 20th century panelled door flanked by 20th century sashes with two 20th century 16-pane sashes and a central 12-pane sash above. The front wing to the left has 19th century sashes with an 18th century panelled door near the centre, a 16-pane sash in a partly blocked wide opening with a slate string to the left and a 16-pane sash to the right. Three 16-pane sashes are present on the first floor.

A stone rubble and cob garden wall projects from the right-hand side of the front wall of the main range. A low stone rubble wall with granite coping and gate-piers with 19th century iron railings encloses the fourth side of the courtyard to the front of the house.

The interior of the main range's right-hand room was remodelled in the 20th century. To the left, the hall was probably divided in the early 18th century and retains remains of an early 18th century moulded plaster cornice. The first floor of the main range was remodelled in the 20th century for the nursing home.

The front wing to the left remains unaltered, though the service outshots to the rear are partly derelict. Remains of a probably 18th century timber lintel to the fireplace heating the front room survive, and the chamber above is heated by an axial stack with a bolection-moulded chimney-piece. The room probably added on the higher end of the main range has a plaster ceiling with what appear to be heavy chamfered 17th century floor joists and a large fireplace with a probably 17th century lintel. A 17th century outshot on the left-hand side of the front room of the wing has heavy chamfered 17th century floor joists and the remains of a probably 17th century fireplace.

The roof structure is not fully accessible. A fire in the front left-hand wing has blackened and charred part of the roof structure, including 19th and 20th century common rafters as well as earlier purlins and principals. However, at least three 17th century trusses are evident, featuring morticed and halved, lap-jointed and pegged apices and dovetailed, notched lap-jointed and pegged collars.

The visible features of The Barton indicate a house of some importance. It is possible that other features survive beneath late alterations and remodelling, and care should therefore be taken in any future alterations.