Mill Barton

Mill Barton is a farmhouse dating to the early 16th century, with significant alterations in the later 16th and 17th centuries, and some 19th-century modernisation. The walls are plastered cob on rubble footings, with rubble stacks topped with 19th-century brick and a slate roof, formerly thatched. Originally built with a 3-room-and-through-passage plan, the house has a former inner room near the south-west end. There are 17th and 18th-century single-room extensions to both ends, and a 17th-century dairy extension at right angles to the rear of the hall and inner room. A 19th-century stair is now located in the rear passage. Stacks are positioned to the rear of the inner room, axially behind the former passage to the hall, and axially to the service end room. The front elevation has an unbalanced 7-window arrangement, primarily with sash windows. The ground floor windows are 16-pane sashes, while the first floor windows are 12-pane sashes. Hornless sashes are in the hall and the chamber above, with horned sashes in the passage and lower end. The inner room and chamber above retain 17th-century oak 4-light window frames with ovolo-moulded mullions; a 20th-century casement with glazing bars is at the left end. A passage door is positioned to the right of centre, with service doors at each end. The front elevation’s axis shifts slightly to the right of the passage door. The roof is gable-ended. The hall chimney shaft is plastered but appears to be original rubble stonework. The rear dairy extension features a 17th-century oak 2-light window frame with ovolo-moulded mullions at first floor level, under a gable. The interior is notable for its complex structural history. The only visible early 16th-century feature is the remains of a roof truss half-buried within the hall stack, showing a smoke-blackened apex (Alcocks Type C) with saddle and setting for square-set ridge. The roof structure comprises two types: 2-purpled roofs with trenched purlins over the passage and service room, and threaded purlins over the hall and inner room. Lower parts of the trusses are exposed in the hall and inner room chambers, which are side-pegged jointed crucks, the latter including a slip tenon. The inner room has a late 16th- to early 17th-century crossbeam, double ovolo-moulded with step stops. A blocked fireplace is present in the inner room. The hall has probably 17th-century plain chamfered crossbeams, and its fireplace is also blocked. The service end room was refurbished in the late 19th century, when the crossbeam was boxed in and the fireplace received a new chimney piece. The service room chamber has a late 16th- to early 17th-century oak crank-headed door frame to an alcove alongside the chimney stack, likely for a former stair or garderobe. An 18th-century store is located at the north-east end, and a 19th-century truss is near the south-west end wall.