Bartonbury Farmhouse

Bartonbury Farmhouse is a farmhouse of mid to late 16th century date with 17th century improvements and extensions, located at Down St Mary. It is constructed of plastered cob on rubble footings with stone rubble stacks and ashlar chimney shafts, one enlarged with 20th century brick. The roof is covered in corrugated asbestos, formerly thatch, with slate to the outshot.

The house faces north and has an unusual plan. Originally the front door led into an entrance lobby with a small service room or buttery to the rear. To the left (east) is the hall and an inner room beyond. The hall has a projecting rear lateral stack and a newel stair turret alongside; the inner room has a former end stack, now axial. To the left is a 17th century single-room extension and a further late 17th to early 18th century cider store extension on the end. The front outshot, formerly a dairy, was converted to a kitchen around 1950. The shippon at the right (west) end was formerly stables with access from the entrance lobby and was built in the late 17th to early 18th century, possibly an enlargement of the original.

The building is two storeys with an irregular four-window front to the main house comprising a variety of mid to late 16th, 17th and 20th century windows. The rebuilt outshot towards the left end has circa 1950 iron-framed casements with glazing bars and contemporary doors. The first floor window to the 17th century extension, over the monopitch roof of the outshot, is a half dormer with gable over and contains a 17th century oak two-light window with ovolo-moulded mullion, though the lower part has been cut away.

The main door, right of centre, retains the partly-restored original oak door frame, comprising a flat Tudor arch with chamfered surround, carved foliate spandrels and delicately-moulded architrave. It contains a possibly 17th century studded plank door with coverstrips hung on 19th century strap hinges. The door is flanked by 20th century windows, that to the hall on the left inserted around 1950.

The main hall window further left is 16th or 17th century with an unusual form. It is oak, now with three lights (originally six with missing alternate mullions), and features moulded mullions which are boxed in internally. The frame has a moulded surround in which the central ogee mould is enriched with a series of incisions with splayed ends. The head includes more of the same and rosettes. It has been cut back to accommodate 19th century casements and may once have been inscribed with initials or a date.

Three first floor windows over the hall and lobby/service room are 16th or 17th century oak chamfered-mullion windows of different sizes with some lights enlarged by removal of mullions. The shippon at the right end has doors either side of an unglazed framed window with a hayloft loading hatch over and a pair of pigeon holes under the eaves to the left. The roof is gable-ended to the left and hipped to the right.

The rear elevation is irregular with the hall and inner room broken forward from the service end and the 17th century extension. The late 17th to early 18th century extension is also broken forward. Most windows are 20th century casements with glazing bars, those on the first floor enlarging the original embrasures. A 20th century glass-fronted porch leads to the inner room and a 20th century door to the service room. The stair turret has a small original oak-framed light and the service end chamber has an original three-light oak window with chamfered mullions. Two bee-boles appear to the left of the 20th century door and towards the left end is a door to the shippon. The gable end of the late 17th to early 18th century extension has a plank door with a blocked window over. Both chimney shafts are ashlar with chamfered coping; the hall shaft is plastered. The inner room shaft has a second 20th century brick flue added for a first floor fireplace.

The interior is excellent and well-preserved. The screen between the entrance hall and service room/buttery was removed within living memory and is said to have been an oak plank-and-muntin screen. The lower end of the hall had an oak plank-and-muntin screen of which only the headbeam now survives.

The hall is exquisite. The rear fireplace has volcanic ashlar jambs and an oak lintel with a soffit broad bead moulding and front containing a shallow recessed panel with horizontal fluted moulding. The fireplace includes an inserted 19th century brick oven. Alongside to the right is an oak flat Tudor arched doorway with a mended plank door leading to the newel stair.

At the upper end of the hall is an oak plank-and-muntin screen with an elaborately moulded frieze including bands of carved wreathed foliage, a series of incised simple shapes and an arcade. The muntins have broad chaumfers with diagonal step stops above the level of an oak bench, most of which survives in situ. The rear hall window has an oak window seat and an 18th century bible cupboard under the window with a panelled door on H-hinges. The embrasure has a small niche to the left. To the right of the front window is a cream oven alcove, probably 18th century.

The hall is floored in the early 17th century with a richly-moulded crossbeam with run-out stops. The inner room crossbeam has its soffit hacked back. The reverse of the hall plank-and-muntin screen is plain compared with the front. The inner room fireplace has volcanic sides and a massive granite lintel with chamfered surround. An oven to the rear is now hidden by a 20th century stove. 19th century stairs to the right of the fireplace occupy the site of a former newel, whose former presence is shown by a curved recess in the wall.

The small service room behind in the 17th century extension has a plain soffit chamfered axial beam. A full height cob crosswall separates the late 17th to early 18th century cider store, which is open to a two-bay roof carried on an A-frame truss with pegged lap-jointed collar and X-apex. On the first floor, the plain roof between solid crosswalls and the back of the inner wall stack shows weathered off-sets proving that it was once external.

The hall has full height large-framed crosswalls over the plank-and-muntin screens. They are closed side-pegged jointed cruck trusses and there is an open side-pegged jointed cruck truss over the hall. The roofspace over the service end and inner room is not smoke-blackened but the roofspace over the hall is inaccessible. Evidence for some remodelling appears in the upper end crosswall where the roof was raised in the 17th century, leaving empty mortices in the principals from an earlier roof. The lower end crosswall includes a small window, now blocked, overlooking the hall.

The newel from the hall has solid oak treads and includes a rare survival of an original blind balustrade at the top. Early 17th century oak door frames with chamfered surround lead to two chambers off the first floor landing. Some early wide floorboards survive in the hall chamber.

A full height cob crosswall separates the service room/buttery and the shippon. The shippon has plain waney beams to the ground floor and a three-bay roof carried on A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars.

Bartonbury is a very well-preserved farmhouse which includes a number of features of surprisingly high quality relative to the size and status of the house. By any criteria of judgement, this is an important Devon farmhouse.