Leigh Barton

Leigh Barton is a house dating from around the mid-17th century, with extensive renovations in the 20th century. It is constructed of colourwashed rendered cob and stone rubble, topped with a slate roof that was originally thatched. The building features gabled ends and has both an axial stack and a rear lateral stack.

The main layout consists of three rooms, originally designed with a single depth. The entrance is located to the right of centre, adjacent to back-to-back stacks that heat the hall and the right-hand rooms, while the kitchen on the left is heated by the rear lateral stack. There are two-storey rear additions that include the main and service stairs, the latter situated in a turret. The house has been extended to the left by two rooms, which were likely former outbuildings.

The exterior is two storeys high and presents an asymmetrical façade with a 1:4 window arrangement. A change in plane and roofline to the left of centre indicates the original extent of the 17th-century house. There is a 20th-century glazed porch to the right of centre, leading to a 19th-century front door that opens directly into the hall, with an additional door to the left leading into the former outbuilding. The windows are small-pane timber casements, and the four-light hall window may retain the original embrasure.

On the ground floor, the hall features impressive double ovolo-moulded cross beams with elaborate stops, along with an open fireplace that has dressed stone jambs, a stone-lined bread oven, and a timber lintel. The left-hand room contains an open fireplace, a 19th-century bread oven, and a replaced timber lintel. The entryway has a short ovolo-moulded stopped beam to the right, and the right-hand partition has been removed. The right-hand room has roughly carpentered exposed cross beams and joists, which may have originally been plastered, but its fireplace is now blocked. The first floor and roof space have not been inspected, but the roof timbers are reported to be partly replaced and partly burnt following an early 20th-century thatch fire.