Barton Hall House

Barton Hall House

A house of 16th and 17th century origins, extensively rebuilt around 1810 by the Reverend Edward Copleston, Bishop of Llandaff and Dean of St. Pauls. The building is constructed of local stone and flint rubble laid to rough courses with Beerstone ashlar quoins and detail. Stone rubble stacks support octagonal Beerstone chimney shafts. The roof is slate, with thatch covering the rear service block.

The house follows an L-plan. The main block faces east and contains a four-room layout with cross-passage. At the left (south) end stands the service kitchen with a gable end stack. Between the kitchen and passage is a narrow unheated dairy or buttery. The hall has an axial stack backing onto the passage, with an unheated inner room at the right (north) end. A single-room parlour wing projects forward at right angles in front of the inner room, featuring its own gable end stack. Behind the kitchen, a single-storey service wing projects at right angles to the rear.

The main house retains the layout and some features of a 16th century structure with 17th century improvements, though it is essentially a shell. Not enough survives to determine the early development in detail; the building was probably some form of open hall house. The old structure was extensively rebuilt around 1810 in Tudor Gothic style as a two-storey building.

The main block presents a regular but not symmetrical three-window front from the circa 1810 rebuild. The windows are constructed of Beerstone with hollow-chamfered mullions, round-headed lights, sunken spandrels and hoodmoulds, containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. The passage front doorway is positioned right of centre, containing a part-glazed four-panel door behind a Beerstone ashlar porch with Tudor arch panels on either side. The outer Tudor arch has sunken spandrels and a hoodmould. The gable features shaped kneelers and coping with a cusped frieze below and a panelled shaft at the apex topped by a ball finial. Towards the left end is a service doorway to the kitchen, featuring an elliptical arch with hoodmould and containing a plank door. The roof has gable ends with shaped kneelers and coping.

Internally, early features survive particularly in the hall, which contains a large Beerstone ashlar fireplace with a low Tudor-arched oak lintel and chamfered surround. At the upper end are the remains of an oak plank-and-muntin screen, with chamfered muntins featuring cut diagonal stops high enough to accommodate a bench below. The parlour crossbeam is plastered over but is thought to be 17th century; the contemporary fireplace here is blocked. The kitchen fireplace is probably 17th century, with a neatly chamfered oak lintel, though it is lined with 19th century brick and includes a large 19th century oven and ash pit. All main block ground floor rooms have flagged floors. The remainder of the interior detail and carpentry dates from the circa 1810 rebuild.