Wood Barton

Wood Barton is a Grade I farmhouse dating from the early to mid-14th century, with later alterations. It demonstrates the sophistication of medieval domestic architecture and represents an important example of crown post construction from the period.

The building comprises a probable three-room through-passage plan with the service end to the left of the passage. The hall and inner room occupy four bays and were originally open to the roof, which retains smoke blackening—more heavily at the lower end and rear. The service end appears to have been heated by a stack from the beginning, as evidenced by a clean two-bay roof. The structure employs base cruck and crown post construction of notably high quality carpentry. The roof type is generally believed to reflect fashions prevalent in Court circles during the early to mid-14th century, comparable to Moorstone Barton at Halberton.

The building is faced with roughcast rubble to the front and roughcast cob on stone footings elsewhere, with a hipped thatched roof. The roof appears to have undergone considerable repairs in the 18th century, and the higher end shows clear evidence of a late insertion of a first floor and axial stack.

Historical records show that in the early 14th century Wood Barton was owned by John de Gozan and probably tenanted by John ette Woods. In 1336 it was sold to William de Seyncler of Kingswood along with the services of Walter ette Parke, carpenter—the presence of a working carpenter on site is suggestive of the building's construction date. The estate passed to the Whitguys in the 1350s. The brisk property trade in the mid-14th century often reflected wartime profits, and the Seyncler family was notably active in the Hundred Years War.

The front elevation displays a four-window range. The first floor has 3- and 4-light 19th-century casement windows under shallow eyebrow eaves. Each of the principal ground floor rooms has a 4-light window. A half-hipped thatched porch with a pegged doorway surround contains a wide half-glazed door. The higher end features an axial brick stack, while the service end has a lateral rendered stack, now partly concealed by a later front wing, possibly 15th-century, featuring ovolo-moulded stone windows brought from another house.

The right-hand elevation shows a first floor 4-light timber window with mullions and surround displaying an unusual concave moulding, possibly early 18th-century or perhaps late 17th-century. Below is a 19th-century 2-light casement window. The rear elevation has an eaves line slightly higher to the service end, and one 3-light 19th-century casement window with leaded panes to the first floor, set in a larger embrasure with chamfered surrounds. Slated lean-tos run throughout.

Internally, the service end room contains a lower end bressumer indicating the possible existence of a now-dismantled end stack. The present fireplace lintel is chamfered with small stops and notch, with brick jambs and a back bake oven. The ceiling cross beams are unchamfered. The wing features three deeply chamfered ceiling cross beams. A doorframe taken from the end wall and reused at first floor level has a two-centred arch with composite moulded jambs, appearing to be early 16th-century in date. The upper floor of the wing is heated by a fireplace inserted into the rear of the kitchen stack, furnished with a reused ovolo-moulded lintel.

The hall and inner room contain late, that is 18th-century, ceiling cross beams and a recent brick fireplace. The spere truss between the hall/through passage and service end matches the dimensions of the two service end trusses. Above the site of the passage an unusual arrangement is adopted to allow for the widening of the roof span over the hall and inner room: the first intermediate bay's windbraces are set diagonally, with the first intermediate truss spanning the full width of the hall. The roof trusses elsewhere feature moulded arched braces with cusping above the collar, a crenellated purlin between the two tiers of windbraces (creating an impression almost of an arcade plate), and curved diagonal strutting. The roof trusses have been drawn by J L Thorp.