Court Barton Farmhouse

SS 70 NW 4/87 26.8.65

LAPFORD LAPFORD Court Barton Farmhouse

GV II

Farmhouse. Late C15-early C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements. Main block is mainly plastered cob on rubble footings but part of rear wall is exposed rubble facing with some brick patching and rear block is partly plastered rubble; rubble stacks with C19 and C20 brick chimney shafts; slate roof (originally thatch). Main block has 3-room-and-through-passage plan with slightly narrower service end room on right (south) end and a late C17 kitchen block at right angles to rear of passage and service room. Front lateral stack to hall and end stacks to service room and kitchen. A second front lateral stack is said to have served inner room. 2 storeys with disused attics to main block. Regular 4 window front, all circa 1980 aluminum framed casements with leaded glass except C19 casement with glazing bars on ground floor left end. Now C20 door to passage right of centre behind circa 1980 glass-roofed conservatory. Hall stack has tall chimney shaft. Roof is gabled to right, half-hipped to left. Interior shows a house of several builds. The oldest structure is in the roof. The 3 bay roof over passage, hall and inner room is carried on 2 late C15-early C16 face-pegged jointed cruck trusses. They have cambered collars, a yoke at the apex allowing the principals to clasp a square set ridge (Alcock's Type H), and the slots for trenched purlins. This roof is heavily sooted indicating that the original house was open from ground to roof, probably divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth. There is a cob crosswall between passage and the service room which is narrower, possibly a C17 extension. Early C17 truss over the crosswall is a side-pegged jointed cruck with pegged dovetail lap-jointed collar and threaded purlins. Probably late C17 A-frame trusses with simple pegged lap-jointed collars over service end. Hall and inner room have apparently continuous ceiling carried on early C17 double-ovolo moulded crossbeams. Stone rubble fireplace of about same date has chamfered oak lintel and the right side, also forming a side to the window embrasure, is a single piece of granite ashlar and ovolo-moulded along each edge. Service end has plain carpentry detail, nothing showing earlier than late C17. Kitchen also probably late C17 or early C18 with a chamfered and runout-stopped crossbeam. Fireplace blocked.

Listing NGR: SS7321108224