Sutton Barton Farmhouse Including Front Garden Railings

Sutton Barton Farmhouse Including Front Garden Railings

A farmhouse and country club with origins in the 16th or 17th century, much rebuilt around 1700, with some modernisation around 1970. The building is constructed from exposed local stone rubble with Beerstone ashlar quoins and coping. Stone rubble stacks predominate, mostly with 19th and 20th-century brick chimneyshafts, though one chimneyshaft on the main block to the left of centre, probably dating from around 1700, has panelled sides. The roof is slate, laid over what was formerly thatch.

The main block faces east-south-east with a three-room-and-through-passage plan. The left (south) end room is gable-ended with a stack; it was originally the kitchen with a service stair to the rear. Next to it is the former dining room with an axial stack backing onto the kitchen. On the north side of the passage is a parlour with an axial stack backing onto a crosswing that projects both front and back. This crosswing probably contained the principal rooms, including a principal parlour at the front with a gable-end stack, the main stair at the end of the main block, and another room to the rear (which has a 20th-century flat-roofed extension on its outer side). A two-room service wing projects at right angles to the rear of the kitchen. Some pre-1700 features and plan elements survive, suggesting the house may have been rebuilt in stages while still occupied. The room to the left of the present passage appears to have been the former hall, with the site of the earlier through-passage and service room now occupied by the kitchen. The earlier inner room end was evidently rebuilt and enlarged to form the present passage, parlour, and crosswing. The house is two storeys with attics in the rear service wing and a 19th-century single-storey outshot in front of the front left end.

The front elevation displays a regular seven-window arrangement of 20th-century replacement casements without glazing bars. The right five-window section is symmetrical about the passage front doorway, which still contains its original circa 1700 two-panel door behind a 19th-century gabled porch. At the left end is a 20th-century lean-to porch behind which stands a circa 1700 service doorway containing its original plank door with moulded coverstrips. The doorway still retains its original hood on shaped timber brackets, now incorporated into the porch. The roof and both wing roofs are gable-ended with shaped kneelers and coping. A two-window front faces the inner side of the front part of the crosswing; most windows here are circa 1700 oak mullion-and-transom windows with replacement glass. On the outer side of the crosswing, the stair is lit by a circa 1700 mullion-and-transom window containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. The first-floor windows at the back of the main block are similar, with some containing old green-tinted glass panes. Alongside the stair window is a reset early 17th-century oak three-light window with ovolo-moulded mullions. The main passage rear doorway contains its circa 1700 two-panel door under a contemporary hood.

Though full interior inspection was not available at the time of survey, a large 16th or 17th-century fireplace with a chamfered oak lintel was observed in the dining room, and the main block parlour contains a large bolection chimneypiece of circa 1700. Both these rooms have deeply chamfered axial beams. The circa 1700 staircase survives according to the farmer. The previous list description reports a "banqueting hall with fine ceiling beams and half an original fireplace with the date 1591". Circa 1700 joinery detail is suspected throughout the house.

A narrow strip of garden across the front of the main block is enclosed by a low brick wall with plain 19th-century cast iron railings and brick piers topped with Beerstone pyramid caps.

The property is one of several Marwood family mansions in the area. Sutton was known as Sutuna in the Domesday Book.