Penelewey Barton Farmhouse And Garden Walls To South

Penelewey Barton Farmhouse and Garden Walls to South

This is a farmhouse with adjoining garden walls to the south, dating from a 1710 remodelling of an earlier house carried out for James Mayo. The building is constructed partly in brick laid to English bond on its front, with slatestone rubble elsewhere. It features granite sills, flat brick arches, and wooden lintels. The roof is half-hipped and covered in asbestos slate with a modillioned eaves cornice to the front and a sweeping lower section to the rear with a central scantle-slated hipped dormer over an integral stair turret. A hipped asbestos slate roof at lower level covers the right (east) side. There is a tall brick chimney over the side wall to the left, and a further wider brick chimney over the cross wall between the main part of the house and the kitchen to the right.

The original building probably had a 3-room through-passage plan. In 1710, the upper end—the hall and inner room—was rebuilt to create a central through-passage plan with reception rooms on either side and a central stair hall between narrower and shallower integral rear service rooms. The lower end was retained and remodelled as a kitchen with an enormous hearth backing onto the cross wall.

The house is two storeys. The south front has four windows overall, with a symmetrical 3-window section featuring a central doorway, and a 1-window lower kitchen front to the right. The main doorway has a 6-panel door and pedimented doorcase within a 20th-century glazed porch. The ground floor was rendered in the 20th century to mid-floor brick platband level. All original 1710 16-pane hornless sashes feature very wide glazing bars with internal ovolo-moulding and original crown glass. One pane to the window over the door has "John Vivian 1716" scratched on it. The lower end to the right has an original 1710 12-pane 2-light casement to the left, a doorway to the right, and an original 16-pane sash over the door. The first-floor walling is stepped back, presumably rebuilt in 1710, above first-floor sill level. A further original sash on the right-hand (east) side wall at first floor has "Hearle 1860" scratched on one pane, with an original casement below. The rear has an original tall sash to the stair and four original 2-light casements—two to the first floor to the left of the stair, one to the right, and one single-light casement to the ground floor to the left of the middle. A wide opening to the ground floor right has a later 12-pane 2-light casement. A wide doorway runs under and slightly to the left of the stair window. A brick lean-to laid to English bond with a scantle roof adjoins at the left. A single-storey scantle-roofed earth closet with ash house building adjoins at the right-hand end.

The interior survives almost completely from the 1710 remodelling. Doors, mostly 2-panelled, have original architraves throughout, and moulded plaster ceiling cornices adorn the reception rooms and chambers, including a fine canopied ceiling to the chamber over the kitchen with ovolo and cavetto moulding to the upper angle. The middle room has panelled window shutters and high dado panelling. The stair hall contains a fine circa mid-18th-century Chinese Chippendale unequal dog-leg stair with landing balustrade and moulded handrail becoming level over newels. It is possible that the main framework of the stair is original with balusters replaced only with Chinoiserie. The kitchen retains a 17th-century chamfered cross beam with stopped chamfers. A large fireplace with oven is positioned to the right-hand side, with a bacon rack of close-set grid construction fixed to the middle of the ceiling, and an 18th-century dresser near the door.

The garden walls and gate-piers date to circa 1710. They are constructed in brick laid to English bond with squared granite copings featuring arrow-head finials over taller piers. Two sections of walling run roughly north-south with a gateway midway, adjoining the house to the north. The square-on-plan gate-piers and terminal piers are accompanied by a short flight of granite steps within the gateway.

The site is mentioned in 1285 in connection with the Statute of Merton regarding rights of access. In 1568, Penelewey Barton was part of Trevilla, and freehold was sought by James Mayo in 1690. The building represents a very complete 1710 remodelling of an earlier house and is particularly notable for the quality and quantity of 18th-century features, including its almost complete 1710 fenestration to front, rear, and side. These remarkable windows—both sashes and casements—are very early and well-preserved examples, complete with most of the original crown glass.