Upton Hellions Barton Including Cider House And Store Adjoining To North East

Upton Hellions Barton is a gentleman's home, now farmhouse, built around 1566 for Dr George Carew. It was modernised around 1792 for Richard Read and again during the 19th and 20th centuries. The building is constructed of volcanic and mudstone rubble, plastered on the front, with rubble stacks featuring 16th-century rubble and 19th and 20th-century brick chimney shafts. The domestic ranges are thatched while the cider house has a slate roof.

The complex consists of three adjoining blocks arranged around a rear courtyard. The main block faces south-east and contains a three-room and through-passage plan with a small inner room at the north-east end and a high-quality parlour at the left end, with the kitchen and services in a rear south-west wing. The north-east rear wing, originally behind the inner room, is now a cider-house and store. The building has two storeys throughout, with attic rooms to the main block and a cellar beneath the parlour. Rear lateral stacks serve the hall and parlour, and a large lateral kitchen stack serves the south-west range. A stair block was added to the rear of the parlour around 1692.

The south-east front is plastered with symmetrical fenestration at the left end around the front door and irregular fenestration at the right end, creating an overall elevation of five windows fitted with 19th and 20th-century casements with glazing bars. The main door is positioned left of centre, sheltered by a late 19th-century gabled and tiled roof with trellis sides. The original circa 1566 oak doorway has an elliptical head with a double hollow-chamfered surround decorated with ornate pyramid stops and contains a studded oak plank door with strap hinges of the same date. A 20th-century secondary door is located at the right end. The north-east gable end was largely rebuilt in the 20th century. The roof is hipped to the left, and the left corner features a 16th-century offset buttress of volcanic ashlar. All other elevations display exposed rubble.

The left (south-west) end of the main block has circa 1792 fenestration: a first-floor four-light flat-faced mullion window with iron casements and leaded glass, and two similar three-light windows on the ground floor, replacing a single 16th-century window indicated by a central Beer stone hoodmould. The south-west wing has 20th-century windows flanking an enormous projecting kitchen stack with a moulded drip course at the top below 16th-century tall paired chimney shafts with moulded capping. The roof has a half-hipped end. The end wall features a central ground-floor 16th-century oak four-light ovolo-moulded mullion window, but the first floor was rebuilt with 20th-century brick. The courtyard side of the wing includes a 16th-century oak door frame with ovolo-moulded surround with straight-cut stops, containing an oak plank door hanging on strap hinges with fleur de lys terminals. The rear of the main block contains a late 17th-century stair block to the right, a rear passage door with a 16th-century oak door frame with double-ovolo moulded surround containing a studded oak door with moulded vertical cover strips, and at the left side a large projecting hall stack with the original chimney shaft and remains of moulded capping.

The north-east range has a three-window courtyard front of 20th-century plain mullioned windows (mostly unglazed) and a heavy oak door frame with chamfered surround, topped with a slate roof.

Internally, although most 16th and 17th-century features are concealed by 19th and 20th-century work, the through passage contains a double-ovolo moulded beam. The plastered hall-passage screen is said to comprise a 16th-century oak small-panel screen with moulded rails and muntins. The hall, now subdivided with its fireplace blocked and ceilings lowered, originally served as the primary living space. The parlour has a high ceiling carried on plain chamfered crossbeams and includes supposed garderobe closets in the front wall, with similar blocked closets apparently serving the first-floor chamber.

A circa 1692 dogleg stair at the rear of the parlour features a closed string, square newel posts and turned balusters, with the first flight having half balusters and a handrail applied to the wall and across a concealed cellar door hung on H-L hinges. The main block roof, also dating to circa 1692, comprises beam trusses with high collars and low queen struts (all with pegged mortise-and-tenon joints) carrying chamfered butt purlins. The ties support upended plank joists of the attic floor. The rear block has a side-pegged jointed cruck roof. The cider house contains a part-floored apple loft with a cider press and 19th-century machinery, topped with a 19th-century king-post roof.