Apple Garth And West Barton

Apple Garth and West Barton

Two houses, probably originally one building, dating from the 17th century. They stand on Silver Street in Thorverton, forming part of a group of heritage buildings.

The exterior is whitewashed and rendered, with a thatched roof featuring a plain ridge and gabled ends. The rear right wing is half-hipped at its end. Chimneys with brick shafts are positioned at the ends of the building and centrally.

The building has an approximately U-shaped plan. The main range is three rooms wide, with a single-depth wing at the right end (West Barton). Apple Garth, on the left, extends further back with a narrow service room to the right, and both ends have rear crosswings. The two right-hand rooms of the main range project slightly forward, suggesting two separate building phases.

Apple Garth has its entrance on the front facing a straight stair. West Barton contains two heated rooms at the front with direct access into the left-hand room, and an unheated rear wing arranged as a single room.

The building rises two storeys. The asymmetrical front facade displays a 2:2 window arrangement, with Apple Garth slightly set back to the left. Apple Garth has a 20th-century front door to the right with a flat porch hood, two first-floor 3-light casements with square leaded panes (probably 18th century), two ground-floor 4-light casements with square leaded panes (also probably 18th century), and a 20th-century window to the right of the front door. West Barton has a 20th-century front door left of centre with a hipped porch canopy carried on moulded timber brackets. It displays two first-floor 3-light casements with square leaded panes, outer ground-floor windows with 3-light and 2-light casements with square leaded panes. The heavily buttressed right return of West Barton contains a variety of casements including a 17th-century first-floor ovolo-moulded timber mullioned window and a similar 3-light window below.

Interior features include the principal room at the front of Apple Garth, which has a 20th-century grate (probably concealing earlier features) and two cross beams. The right-hand beam may be a replacement, carried on a moulded post; the left-hand beam is chamfered with stops possibly buried in wall plaster. The first-floor principal room retains the remains of a moulded plaster cornice.

The left-hand ground-floor room of West Barton contains an open fireplace with ashlar jambs and a chamfered oak lintel with scroll-nick stops, with a chamfered cross beam exhibiting scroll-stops. Above the fireplace is a section of early 17th-century panelling divided into three panels with foliage carving, not necessarily in its original position. The right ground-floor room has a partly blocked 17th-century fireplace with stone jambs and chamfered lintel. A carved section dated 1612 with initials WY above the fireplace features scroll-stops and may have been repositioned; a chamfered cross beam with scroll-stops is also present.

The roof was not inspected at the time of survey in 1986, but is recorded as consisting of pegged apex trusses, probably of late 17th or early 18th-century date.

This is an attractive thatched range forming part of the streetscape on Silver Street, notable for its unusual survival of early windows and interior features of architectural interest. It has group value with Pynes and Thorverton.