Hill Barton

Hill Barton is an early 17th-century farmhouse. The lower section was rebuilt in the 19th century, with 20th-century alterations. The farmhouse is constructed of painted stone rubble, with a corrugated asbestos roof and gable ends. It has a stack at the left gable end serving the inner room, and a front lateral hall stack, both without shafts. The original layout comprised three rooms and a through-passage, with an inner room to the left of the hall. The inner room contains an integral winder staircase in the rear left-hand corner. The through-passage and the lower end were rebuilt in the 19th century, likely replacing a byre. A dairy is located in an outshut to the rear of the inner room, and a flat-roofed extension extends from the rear of the hall and lower end.

The farmhouse is two storeys high with a 7-window range. The windows are primarily 2-light casements, all of 20th-century design. A small, painted datestone between two left-hand windows appears to read 1632 and is initialled ‘NC’. A lean-to roofed porch shelters the door to the inner room; a reconstructed bread oven projection sits to the right of the hall stack. A gabled roofed porch of stone rubble leads to the through-passage and features a straight-headed brick lintel. Ground floor windows to the right of the porch have slightly cambered painted brick arches.

Inside the hall, the original 17th-century ceiling remains, with two cross ceiling beams and bressumers featuring ovolo mouldings that terminate in decorative scroll stops enriched with prism and spearhead mouldings. All joists have double scratch-mouldings. The fireplace lintel has been replaced. Integral seats are set within the upper window recesses, as are two integral cupboards to the rear of the hall, with a six-panelled door to the left and a two-panelled door to the right. The bressumer in the upper end of the inner room mirrors the earlier moulding and stops, with a cambered brick arch over the fireplace. Original winder stone steps lead to the rear left-hand corner, where a rustic 20th-century staircase is situated in the through-passage. The lower end has panelled doors on each side of the fireplace, and a partially exposed timber lintel in the inner room fireplace is initialled NC/TC. Integral seats are also present in the upper floor window niches, and most of the original 19th-century joinery remains. The roof trusses of a flat pitch over the original range were likely replaced during the rebuilding of the lower end. There is no visible smoke-blackening.