Halton Barton Farmhouse

A farmhouse, now house, that appears to date from the early 17th century, with remains of an earlier building to the left. Significant alterations and additions were made probably in the mid-17th century, including the construction of a two-storey porch and a parlour wing. Later alterations and additions followed. The building is constructed of slatestone rubble with granite dressings and some brick dressings. The roof is slate and asbestos slate with ridge tiles; some hand-made crested ridge tiles remain on the main range and front wing. Chimney stacks include a rear lateral hall stack, an axial stack to the right, and a rear gable end stack to the parlour wing.

Plan and Development

The original plan may have had a central through passage, with a hall or kitchen to the left and an unheated lower end room to the right. The hall may have been heated by a front lateral stack; at ground floor level, this has been removed and replaced by a window, with a rear lateral stack inserted in its place. If there was an inner room, it may have been heated from an axial stack backing onto the upper left end of the hall. The inner room appears to have been in a cross wing at the upper left end, with the side of a stack visible there.

Probably in the mid-17th century, a two-storey porch was added to the front of the passage, and a parlour wing of two-room plan was added to the lower right end. This contains a small room to the front, heated by a stack, and a large parlour to the rear, heated by a gable end stack. The entrance to the rear parlour is outside the rear passage, and an addition was made to give internal access. At about the same time, a kitchen addition was made to the rear of the hall, and the hall was partitioned to form an unheated dairy at the upper left end. The hall was thus reduced in size and heated from a rear lateral stack. A stair has been inserted at the rear of the lower end room. The rear room in the parlour wing may originally have been intended as a rear kitchen, with a smoking chamber by the fireplace. The door to this room may be reused from elsewhere in the house, as it is set the wrong way round.

Exterior

The building is of two storeys with an asymmetrical front comprising a storied porch, two bays to the left, and one bay with a gable end to the right. The two-storey gabled porch has an outer three-centred arched doorway in granite with roll-mouldings, leaves in the spandrels, and a hood mould with label stops. At first floor level is a three-light eight-pane 19th-century casement with L hinges and a cambered greenstone arch. The interior of the porch has a slate floor and wooden benches on shaped brackets to the sides, with niches with slate cills to right and left. The inner doorway is depressed four-centred arched with deep chamfer and pyramid stops; the door has battens, studs, and strap hinges.

The upper end to the left has a two-light 20th-century casement to the left with a chamfered brick head and iron stanchions (lighting the dairy), and a 19th-century three-light casement with L hinges and a cambered brick head (lighting the hall). At first floor level to the left is a two-light six-pane casement with L hinges, and to the right a three-light six-pane casement with L hinges. The lower end to the right has a ground floor two-light casement with L hinges and a cambered greenstone arch. The gable end to the right has two-light 20th-century casements at ground and first floor levels.

At the right side is the parlour wing, which has a ground floor twelve-pane sash with sidelights and a first floor right three-light eight-pane casement with L hinges and timber lintel. Reused granite label stops are visible in the masonry. At the left end is a 20th-century window at ground floor to the right, formerly a door opening from the hall to the inner room. A wall remains from a former building of two storeys, with window openings at ground and first floor to the front. These remains are on a different axis from the main range, with granite window openings remaining, and a former fireplace to the rear with a cambered chamfered granite lintel. The kitchen range at the rear of the hall was formerly of two storeys.

At the rear, the wing to the left has a blind end wall. On the inner side is a ground floor granite two-light casement with deeply concave mouldings; at first floor is a two-light hollow-chamfered granite casement with eight-pane lights and HL hinges. The rear of the main range has a first floor four-pane light and a rear lateral hall stack with rebuilt rubble shaft. At the rear of the passage is a single storey lean-to with a 20th-century door and four-pane light to the left and a two-light 20th-century casement to the right. A larger kitchen addition to the right, also single storey, has a 20th-century three-light casement and large rear lateral stack with cornice. To the right are external stone steps, possibly originally leading to a loft over the kitchen, and possibly also originally extending further into a rear range.

Interior

The through passage has a slate floor and a small recess in the wall to the right. The passage rear doorway has a granite surround, as at the front, with pintles remaining from a former door. A step leads up to the hall to the left, with a wooden panelled screen partition with scratch mouldings, possibly of early 17th-century date, and an early 18th-century two-panelled door with HL hinges.

The hall has a wide front window bay with splayed reveals, probably the site of the original fireplace. The rear lateral fireplace has a flat granite chamfered lintel without stops, granite jambs, and a cloam oven to the rear right; this was probably inserted when the room was reduced in size. A straight joint is visible to the right of the rear fireplace. The upper end room was formerly part of the hall, converted as a dairy, and the end window has a surround formerly for a door with jambs of full length and a depressed four-centred granite arch, chamfered. The thickness of the wall is stepped, and this doorway may possibly have been originally a front doorway to the earlier range on a different axis.

The lower end room to the right of the passage is now entered from the parlour wing; the straight stair may have been inserted in the site of the original doorway from the passage. This room is unheated and has deep splayed reveals to the front window, with a slate floor and slate shelves.

At the rear of the passage, the lean-to has a slate floor and a four-centred arched granite doorway to the rear parlour wing, chamfered with pyramid stops; the mouldings are on the inner side of the doorway. The rear room in the wing has three chamfered beams with run-out stops and a resited fireplace in the rear gable end, in granite, with swept vestigial ogee and roundels and roll-mouldings; this was originally part of the remains of the early building at the upper left end. The windows are hollow-chamfered on the inside, and the rear room has a slate floor. The front room is a small parlour, much remodelled.

The stair has an ovolo-moulded beam over, and there is a small wooden doorframe which may have led to an attic flight. On the first floor, the chamber over the hall has a fireplace to the front in granite, chamfered with pyramid stops, matching the mouldings on the doorways in the passage and using the flue from the original hall fireplace. The ceiling is slightly coved at the front. The hall chamber is also partitioned, as below. The lower end room at first floor has a small fireplace from the axial stack, in granite, chamfered with run-out stops; this room leads to the chamber over the porch, which is unheated. The front window in the lower end chamber has a timber lintel, chamfered with run-out stops.

Roof

The roof construction is continuous over the main range and the parlour wing. The principal rafters are not chamfered, and are halved and pegged at the apex. There are cambered collars, dovetailed and pegged, with threaded purlins. There is no access to the roof over the porch. In the rear of the parlour wing, the walls in the roof space are plastered and the roof space is partitioned.