Hayes Barton Including Garden Walls Adjoining To The South East

HAYES BARTON, EAST BUDLEIGH

This is a farmhouse and former manor house of the 16th century, originally the home of the Raleigh family. Parts may date to the 16th century or earlier, but the house appears largely to have been constructed in the late 16th to early 17th century, possibly associated with a date stone of 1627. It was modernised in the late 19th century.

The building is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with stone rubble chimney stacks, most featuring limestone ashlar quoins, all topped with late 19th-century brick. It is roofed in thatch. The plan is E-shaped, facing south-east.

The main block contains a four-room plan with two main rooms and a small unheated lobby at each end, arranged either side of a central through passage with a front two-storey porch. The main rooms on either side of the passage each have a projecting rear lateral stack; the room to the north-east is a service room, while the room to the left is the hall. The present main stair in the inner room is 19th-century but may replace an original. A one-room parlour crosswing projects at right angles to the front of the inner room and has a projecting lateral stack on its outer side. The kitchen crosswing projects forward from the opposite end with a front gable-end stack, overlapping the right end of the main block by a short distance. The front wall is canted across the corners in the angles between the main block and crosswings. The building is two storeys throughout.

The front elevation would be symmetrical were the front of the kitchen crosswing furnished with windows. There is one window to the porch, one more on each floor either side to the main block, another in the angles, one on the inner side of each crosswing, and one at the end of the parlour crosswing. The only early 17th-century window is that serving the room over the porch, comprising a three-light oak frame with ovolo-moulded mullions. The remainder are 19th and 20th-century replacement casements. All contain leaded glass with intersecting Y-tracery along the top; the first floor window of the parlour crosswing contains the Raleigh arms in stained glass.

The gable end of the porch features early 17th-century oak bargeboards with billet enrichment and an apex pendant. The main block windows on either side also have gables over with similar bargeboards and pendants. The outer arch of the porch appears to be largely a 19th-century rebuild. The cranked head piece may be 17th-century, but the chamfered and step-stopped posts are 19th-century. There is a soffit-moulded bressumer to the first floor. Inside the porch are wooden benches, a 17th-century doorframe and door. The oak doorframe has a moulded surround with urn-scroll stops, and a large studded plank door with plain strap hinges.

All roofs are gable-ended. The rear elevation is less regular than the front, with some windows blocked. The hall window has leaded glass matching those on the front; the others have glazing bars, and there is an unglazed larder window at the left end with two more on the end wall. A rear passage door is sheltered behind a 20th-century brick and slate-roofed porch.

The two rear stacks and the parlour stack are all similar, built of local conglomerate sandstone rubble with Beerstone ashlar quoins and chamfered plinth. The hall retains its original double chimney shaft, which includes a Beerstone plaque inscribed with Richard Duke's initials and the date 1627.

The interior is largely the result of 19th and 20th-century modernisations, though these appear to have been superficial. Where earlier features are exposed they are consistently late 16th to early 17th-century. In the service room to the right of the passage, the crossbeam is boxed in and the fireplace may be reduced in size. It is built of stone rubble with a slightly cambered soffit-chamfered oak lintel. The hall has a replacement crossbeam, but the 17th-century fireplace is exposed, built of Beerstone ashlar with a chamfered surround; the lintel includes a number of early graffiti marks. No carpentry detail shows in either wing below the roof. The parlour fireplace is blocked and the kitchen fireplace is built of 19th-century brick. No early fireplaces are exposed on the first floor.

The roof is late 16th to early 17th-century. The trusses are plastered over but their shape suggests jointed crucks. In the roofspace, the trusses are clean and the construction of the late 16th to early 17th-century oak-framed crosswalls is exposed, with close-set studs and lathes set in individual holes to provide a ladder backing for cob infill.

Hayes Barton holds considerable historical importance for its association with the Raleigh family. Originally called Poerhayes or Powerhayes after the Poer family, it was owned by the Duke family by the 16th century. A lease of 1525 between John Duke and Henry Kenwood excluded a chapel, no trace of which survives. In 1551 the property was leased to Walter Raleigh senior. By then there was no mention of a chapel. It appears likely that the eldest of Walter Raleigh's sons, George, lived here until his death in 1597. Walter the younger, later Sir Walter Raleigh, attempted unsuccessfully to purchase the property from the Dukes, mentioning that it was where he was born. It remained with the Dukes and eventually became part of the Rolle estate.

By tradition, the chamber over the parlour is the birthplace of Sir Walter Raleigh. However, the house as a whole appears to be the result of a major refurbishment if not a complete rebuilding in the late 16th to early 17th centuries, possibly in 1627. Despite this, it remains an interesting building of considerable quality.