Inner Court Of Farmbuildings Adjoining To North Of Bury Barton Farmhouse

Inner Court of Farmbuildings Adjoining to North of Bury Barton Farmhouse

This is a group of three ranges of farmbuildings enclosing a courtyard, dating from the 16th century with significant additions and alterations spanning the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The farmhouse itself (Bury Barton Farmhouse) forms the southern range. The earlier sections are constructed of plastered cob on rubble footings, while later additions are of plastered rubble. The roofs are of slate, though most originally would have been thatched.

The East Wing is an early 19th-century cider house and cider store, now used for general storage. It sits adjacent to the dairy block of the farmhouse. The ground floor has a 20th-century casement window with glazing bars at the right end, with another casement at first-floor level towards the centre. Two 19th-century plank doors are positioned at the left (north) end—one leading to the former ciderhouse and the other to the former cider store. The ciderhouse is part-floored with a rear loading hatch to the apple store. A cob crosswall between the ciderhouse and store incorporates two halves of a large circular trough from a horse-powered apple crusher. The wing features an overall nine-bay roof combining alternate tie beam and king post trusses with scissor brace and king post construction.

The North Wing has developed over several centuries. The eastern end, now used as a workshop with disused stables, dates from the 16th century. This section was extended westward during the 17th and 18th centuries and underwent rearrangement in the 19th century. The late 17th to early 18th-century courtyard entrance and porch survives at the west end, now projecting into the 19th-century outer court and incorporated into circa 1800 linhays. The present carriageway through the 17th-century stables was built at the same time.

The front of the north wing facing the courtyard is irregular with four windows. Behind stands the workshop, projecting eastward from the east wing. To the right of the carriageway are two stables. The right-end stable door is flanked by narrow windows, while the left stable door has a single small window to its left and a stone mounting block beside it. First-floor loading hatches have been converted to windows. Plain arches occupy either end of the carriageway.

A harness room to the left of the carriageway has been converted to a garage. Its rear wall includes the remains of a 17th-century oak four-light window frame with chamfered mullions. First-floor rooms above the carriageway and garage were possibly originally servant accommodation, each featuring 17th-century oak three-light windows with chamfered mullions, with another such window to the rear above the carriageway.

The west end originally comprised a six-bay linhay with three bays open to the inner court and the end three bays reversed and open to the north. This represents circa 1800 Alcock's Type T1 linhays. The rear (north) wall includes the late 17th to early 18th-century courtyard entrance with a tall projecting cob and rubble porch featuring a hipped roof and large outer arch. The inner arch was blocked circa 1800 with a pivoted loading door. The porch has blocked doorways on each side.

The roofs show considerable development across the north range. The workshop and stables feature a seven-bay roof including three complete 16th-century jointed cruck trusses and a fourth with the post removed. Most are side-pegged, though one is face-pegged. All incorporate slip tenons, cambered collars and slots for threaded purlins. The stables also contain a late 17th-century chamfered and straight-cut crossbeam, with a similar beam in the former harness room. The three-bay roof over the carriageway and harness room rests on 17th-century A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars featuring shaped halvings. A 17th-century oak doorframe has been reused in the passage to the stairs. The linhay roof, dating to circa 1800, consists of A-frames with pegged and bolted lap-jointed collars.

The West Range is a six-bay barn of cob and rubble construction with full-height opposing double doorways to the threshing floor positioned right (north) of centre. To the right of these doorways is a semi-octagonal horse engine house with a hipped roof projecting into the courtyard across the front of the north range linhay. This engine house dates to circa 1850 and features a tie beam and king post roof; the machinery has been removed. The barn contains a second set of opposing full-height doorways (now disused) towards the left (south) end. At this southern end sits a 16th-century side-pegged jointed cruck truss whose top is charred, suggesting the barn once caught fire and formerly extended one or two bays further south. The remainder of the barn roof comprises 18th-century A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars and X-apexes. Before circa 1800, the barn also extended one bay further north, with the roof hipped to the left.

Extending eastward from the left (south) end of the barn is a high plastered cob wall on rubble footings with pantile coping, which shelters a garden from the courtyard between the house and barn.