Court Barton Farmhouse

Court Barton Farmhouse is a substantial farmhouse dating to the late 15th and early 16th centuries, with significant alterations in the later 16th and 17th centuries. The main block is constructed of plastered cob on rubble footings, with a rear wall partially exposed as rubble facing, incorporating some brick patching. A rear block is partly plastered rubble. The roof is slate, originally thatched, and features rubble stacks with 19th and 20th-century brick chimney shafts. The farmhouse has a 3-room-and-through-passage plan, with a slightly narrower service room on the south end and a late 17th-century kitchen block set at a right angle to the rear of the passage and service room. Front lateral stacks are present on the hall and service room, and another is said to have served the inner room. The building is two storeys high, with disused attics in the main block. The front facade has a regular 4-window arrangement, with mostly aluminum-framed casements fitted with leaded glass, except for a 19th-century casement with glazing bars on the ground floor. A 20th-century conservatory now stands in front of a 20th-century door positioned to the right of the centre of the front. A tall chimney shaft is attached to the hall stack, and the roof is gabled to the right and half-hipped to the left.

The interior reveals a house built in stages. The oldest structural elements are in the roof, notably the 3-bay roof over the passage, hall, and inner room, supported by two late 15th–early 16th-century face-pegged jointed cruck trusses. These trusses feature cambered collars, a yoke at the apex allowing the principals to clasp a square set ridge (Alcock's Type H), and slots for trenched purlins. The sooting indicates the original house was open to the roof, probably divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth. A cob crosswall separates the passage from the service room, which is narrower, possibly a 17th-century addition. An early 17th-century cruck truss is present over the crosswall, with pegged dovetail lap-jointed collars and threaded purlins. Later 17th-century A-frame trusses with simple pegged lap-jointed collars are above the service end. The hall and inner room have continuous ceilings supported by early 17th-century double-ovolo moulded crossbeams. A stone fireplace of the same period features a chamfered oak lintel, with a single piece of granite ashlar forming a side to the window embrasure, ovolo-moulded along each edge. The service end displays simpler carpentry detail, with nothing earlier than the late 17th century. The kitchen is probably of the late 17th or early 18th century, and contains a crossbeam with a chamfered spine with run-out stops. The fireplace in the kitchen is blocked.