Meshaw Barton And Walled Forecourt

Meshaw Barton and Walled Forecourt

A farmhouse of early 16th-century origin, substantially remodelled in the early 17th century and altered again in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building is constructed with a rubble and cob core, rendered with roughcast and whitewashed. The roof is covered in asbestos slate, dating to around 1960, and features two ridge stacks and a further stack rising from the eaves to the rear, all rebuilt with brick shafts. The rear stack sits on a lateral rubble chimneybreast. A 19th-century lean-to addition extends to the right of the rear, with a corrugated iron sheeting roof and slate roof.

The original plan appears to have been a three-unit structure with a through-passage. The 17th-century remodelling retained this configuration but inserted a dog-leg staircase directly adjacent to the lower side of the through-passage. At the same time, a cellar was inserted below the lower room with access from the through-passage. The whole house was reroofed during this period except for one truss over the higher side of the through-passage. A two-storey porch was added to the front. On the first floor, the space was divided into three principal rooms, with the staircase continuing up to an attic storey. In the 20th century, lowered ceilings were inserted, concealing the ceiling beams in the hall and lower room.

The plan comprises a hall with a rear lateral stack to the left of the through-passage, beyond which lies a heated inner room with a gable-end fireplace. To the right of the through-passage is the lower room, heated by a gable-end fireplace. A 19th-century lean-to extends to the rear.

The exterior is two storeys, with a 2:1:2 fenestration pattern featuring 2-, 3- and 4-light casements with close-set glazing bars. A central projecting gabled porch contains a 3-light window on the first floor, with an outer door set in a plain wooden surround. A single-storeyed lean-to extends at the rear. Two windows serving the cellar are positioned to the right of the ground floor, set in wooden frames with moulded wooden mullions. The property is surrounded by a walled forecourt constructed of rubble masonry.

The interior features a through-passage with stone setts. On the left side of this passage stands a plank and muntin partition with chamfered muntins and head rail displaying mason's mitres. The hall to the left of this partition is largely plain, apart from a cupboard in the rear right-hand corner constructed from reused 17th-century panelling with carved arabesques. The inner room to the left contains two chamfered lateral ceiling beams with run-out stops. On the right side of the through-passage a solid partition sits directly under a moulded cross-beam. A doorway to the stair hall features a very fine studded and panelled door. The 17th-century dog-leg staircase rises throughout to the attic. The first-floor landing is decorated with a 17th-century plaster cornice and two 17th-century moulded door surrounds to the bedroom doors, which feature ledged plank doors. Below, the cellar contains stone steps and is otherwise featureless. The hidden ceiling beams in the hall and lower room remain unseen and are likely of interest.

The roof contains one surviving 16th-century truss over the higher end of the through-passage, featuring straight principals, a mortised apex with a threaded diagonal ridge (the ridge-piece missing), one row of threaded purlins, and a mortised cambered collar. There is no evidence of smoke-blackening. The remainder of the seven-bay roof comprises early 17th-century trusses with mortised ridges, halved and face-pegged straight collars, and two rows of trenched purlins. Again, there is no evidence of smoke-blackening.