Clyst William Barton Farmhouse

Clyst William Barton Farmhouse is an early 16th-century farmhouse that underwent major improvements in the late 16th, 17th, and early 18th centuries, followed by modernisation and enlargement in 1861 according to a date plaque on the building. It is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with cob, stone rubble and brick chimney stacks topped with 19th and 20th-century brick. The roof is thatched.

The farmhouse is built to an L-plan, with the main block facing south-west on a 4-room-and-through-passage plan. The small unheated room at the north-west end is now the kitchen but was originally a service room, probably a dairy or buttery. Adjacent to this is the inner room, formerly the kitchen, which has a projecting front lateral cob stack; the left end of the house is built out flush with the front of this stack. The hall contains an axial stack backing onto the passage. At the south-east end is a lower end parlour with an end stack. A second parlour was added in 1861, projecting forward in front of the original parlour and featuring an outer lateral stack.

The building is a multi-phase structure. Part of the original roof survives over the passage and lower end parlour, indicating that the original house was open to the roof for the most part, divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth fire. The inner room end may have been floored from the beginning but has been rebuilt since. The hall chimneystack was inserted in the mid to late 16th century, and the lower end was probably floored over at the same time. The hall itself was floored over in the mid 17th century. The inner room end was rebuilt and enlarged in the mid 17th century to provide a kitchen and dairy or buttery, and the lower end was probably converted to a parlour at the same time. Some evidence of modernisation exists from the early 18th century, with further modernisation associated with the construction of the 1861 parlour crosswing.

The farmhouse is 2 storeys. The main front is irregular with a 2:1 window arrangement. The main block has 20th-century casements without glazing bars. The front end of the crosswing features a 19th-century 6-pane sash on the first floor, with more on the side, over a 19th-century French window topped with a hood on shaped brackets. The passage front doorway, alongside the crosswing, contains a 19th-century 6-panel door behind a 20th-century gabled porch. The main roof is hipped at each end, as is the crosswing roof. The 1861 date plaque is set into the crosswing chimneyshaft.

Internally, the crosswing contains no features earlier than 1861. The lower end parlour was refurbished at the same time; the beams are boxed in and the fireplace has a 19th-century chimneypiece. However, a cupboard in this room is probably 18th-century, with fielded panel doors on H-hinges. The hall fireplace has Beerstone ashlar panelled cheeks and an oak lintel with its soffit hacked back slightly. The crossbeam here and the former kitchen axial beam both feature deep chamfers with scroll stops. The kitchen fireplace has been relined with 19th-century brick and retains a plain oak lintel. The former dairy or buttery has two chamfered axial beams.

The original roof survives over the passage and lower end parlour, carried on side-pegged jointed crucks. The entire structure, including the purlins, common rafters and underside of the original thatch, is smoke-blackened from the open hearth fire. The rest of the main block roof is carried on 18th-century A-frame trusses with pegged and spiked lap-jointed collars and X-apexes. These trusses also bear carpenter's assembly marks.

Three farmhouses stand close to one another in this location: this one, Middle Clyst William Farmhouse and Little Clyst William Farmhouse, all well-preserved with late medieval origins.