Newton House

Newton House is a former farmhouse with late 16th and early 17th century origins, substantially rebuilt in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and modernised in the mid 19th century and again around 1960. It stands in Zeal Monachorum.

The building is constructed of plastered cob on rubble footings, with stone rubble and cob chimney stacks, most of which are disused though one is topped with 20th century brick. The roof is mostly thatched with some corrugated iron. The present plan appears to derive from major rearrangements undertaken in the late 17th and early 18th centuries of an earlier house. The main block faces south-east and comprises a 3-roomed house with a cider house at the right end. The two main rooms of the house occupy the left end and are separated by a through-passage. Between these and the cider store is a smaller heated room. All three rooms have chimney stacks to the left, consisting of one end stack and two axial stacks. The house appears once to have extended further to the left. The main room to the right of the passage includes a late 17th or early 18th century winder stair alongside the fireplace towards the front. A contemporary kitchen at right angles to the rear of the room left of the passage has a cob end stack. There are 19th and 20th century outshots either side of the kitchen.

The building is two storeys high with an irregular three-window front containing a variety of window types. The main doorway contains a 19th century plank door. To the left is a 19th century three-light casement with glazing bars; to the right a mid-19th century horizontal-sliding sash with 9 panes each side. Another similar window is positioned directly above, and a three-light version sits above the casement. Above the door is a 19th century fixed-pane round-headed window in a square-headed embrasure, containing a radial pattern of glazing bars. Another similar round-headed window is at the left end, and a comparable pattern appears in the overlight of the secondary door to the right room of the house. According to the owners, these round-headed windows were introduced when the nearby Lower Newton Chapel became redundant. To the right of the house, the cider house has a late 16th or early 17th century Tudor-arched doorframe and a possibly contemporary oak three-light window frame with chamfered mullions. A first floor fixed-pane window with glazing bars to the left is probably a replacement of a first floor loading hatch. The roof is gable-ended to the left and hipped to the right. The rear block is gable-ended with mostly 20th century casements with glazing bars.

In the interior of the house, no floor beams or joists are exposed. Two of the main block fireplaces are blocked; the third, at the left end, is built of neat local stone rubble though its lintel is covered. The kitchen contains a large roughly soffit-chamfered oak lintel extending across the full width of the room. Late 17th and early 18th century joinery detail is widespread throughout. Several solid oak doorframes have bead-moulded surrounds and some still contain two-panel doors. At first floor level alongside the left end fireplace, a cupboard has a panelled and scratch-moulded door. The house roof is largely inaccessible, but the feet of large principals are visible, indicating A-frame trusses, and X-apexes can be seen from the cider-house extending over the house. The cider-house itself has two A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars. The inner hall nearest the house appears to be smoke-blackened, though this can only be so if this end was used industrially. The floor beams appear to be secondary, possibly 19th century. This end is very difficult to determine with certainty.