Small Hill Barton Farmhouse

Smallhill Barton Farmhouse

A farmhouse dating from the late 17th century, possibly incorporating fabric from an earlier house on the site, with alterations made in the 19th century and late 20th century fenestration. The house is built of local stone rubble with a rendered and painted front range, the front wall being roughcast. The roof is of dry rag slate with gable ends and overhanging bracketed eaves at the front.

The chimney stacks comprise internal gable end stacks at the front with short rebuilt brick shafts, and a rendered rear lateral stack positioned between the rear wing and the main range. The rear wing has a large projecting gable end stack with stepped set-offs to the right side and a rebuilt brick shaft.

The building is two storeys and comprises an asymmetrical range with three first floor windows disposed towards the right and four ground floor windows. All windows have been replaced with 20th century aluminium pivot windows except for two ground floor windows to the right serving the dairy, which retain wooden frames of probably 19th century date with two lights. The main doorway, positioned left of centre, features a fine wooden round arched hood with a moulded archivolt supported on scrolled console brackets decorated with vine motifs in the volutes. The tympanum beneath the hood displays the arms of the French family in plaster, finely modelled in deep relief. A plain doorway to the passage stands to the right; both doorways are fitted with 20th century aluminium glazed doors. The rear has been entirely refenestrated with 20th century aluminium pivot windows. The two-storey rear outshot is clad in metal sheeting above the ground floor.

The original plan suggests the house comprised a three-room front range. The higher left room, heated from a gable end stack, and the centre room with a rear lateral stack were probably two parlours separated by an entrance into a stair hall. The third room at the lower right end was likely an unheated service room, now the dairy, with a through passage connecting it to the central room. The stair hall has a back doorway leading to the kitchen in a wing, which has its own gable end stack, positioned behind the higher end of the main range.

A late 17th century door frame with moulded inner surfaces connects the kitchen to an outshot behind the lower end of the house, providing access from the kitchen to the service room via the through passage. The outshot was heightened to two storeys in the late 19th century to accommodate a staircase.

Internally, the kitchen fireplace on the ground floor of the rear wing features two large granite jambs with ovolo and cavetto moulding and large diabolo and ball stops. The lintel has been replaced with a brick arch, though the closely spaced jambs suggest the stones may have been reused. The doorway from the kitchen to the rear outshot retains a similarly moulded late 17th century wooden door frame with facetted lozenge-shaped stops with bars. The remainder of the internal joinery, including the main staircase with turned newels and stick balusters, and the back staircase in the outshot with stick balusters and a chamfered square newel, dates from the late 19th century. The dairy is fitted with slate slabs and contains a brick central meat safe with a slate slab top.

A 16th century range, now an outbuilding adjoining the house at right angles at its lower end, may represent remains of an earlier structure, though the relationship between this building and the existing house is unclear.

Smallhill Barton was the seat of the French family until 1814, when it passed to the ownership of Charles Chichester.