Barton Farmhouse

OTTERTON CHURCH HILL, Otterton SY 0885 3/146 Barton Farmhouse

GV II House, former farmhouse, probably monastic origins. Early C16, radically refurbished and rearranged circa 1850. Plastered stone rubble raised with C19 brick; stone rubble and brick stacks topped with C19 brick and including some Rolle Estate chimney pots; slate roof. Double depth plan house facing south-west. The main 3 rooms are on the front with narrower service rooms to rear. Cross passage between centre and left rooms to stairs in rear part. The left room has an end stack and there is a large axial stack between the other 2. The right room was the kitchen. Low range of stores at right angles to rear of left end and outshot across rear added in 1985. Contemporary porch on right end. 2 storeys. Irregular 4-window front of C19 casements with glazing bars and contemporary front door left of centre. Roof half-hipped each end. Interior is nearly all the result of the C19 refurbishment. The only feature which may be earlier is the fireplace of the middle room. It is blocked by a C19 fireplace but the original was apparently very large. The kitchen fireplace backing on to this one is C19, built of brick with a reused oak beam as the lintel. Throughout the rest of the house the joinery detail is consistently mid C19 so to is the king post truss roof. However, on the first floor and in the roof, there is evidence of the original house. It had stone rubble walls which still survive on the long sides to its full height. On the north-west end is the gable but not the other end. The walls were raised approximately 2m in the C19. The original 5-bay roof also survives but the trusses have been cut off just below collar level. They are true cruck trusses of enormous scantling with the remains of chamfered archbraces and windbraces. Other contemporary features may be concealed in the outer walls. Barton Farmhouse is interesting because of the partial survival of the early C16 building. This is intriguing. The standard of carpentry suggests it was a house but if so evidence of smoke-blackening may be expected. Possibly the house was built originally as a barn belonging to the monastry which occupied the site of the adjacent churchyard before the Dissolution.

Listing NGR: SY0796385136