Newton Barton And South Barton

Newton Barton and South Barton is a former manor house located in Newton Tracey. It likely has earlier origins, but was largely built in the 16th century and remodelled and extended in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The house is constructed of painted rendered stone and cob, with an asbestos slate roof featuring gable ends. Brick stacks are present, including a prominent lateral front hall stack with brick shafts and offsets, a stack at the right end, another to the front wing’s gable, and a lateral rear stack within an outshut heating parlour. Originally a 3-room and through-passage plan, the through-passage was later converted into a lobby entry. The parlour end appears to have been entirely rebuilt in the late 16th or early 17th century, with the addition of a short front wing. A 2-story dairy extension to the rear of the hall, probably dating to the 17th century, was largely rebuilt in the 20th century.

The front facade is two stories high with a four-window range. There are two 2-light casements at the right end, followed by six panes per light over three 2-light casements, then three panes per light and two 2-light casements with two panes per light. A plank door, sheltered by an 18th-century timber canopy supported on moulded brackets, leads to the lobby entry. A 19th-century 3-light casement sits to the left of the hall stack, above a stone cavetto mullion window with three 4-centred arched lights. The parlour end has a 17th-century 2-light ovolo mullion window above a similar window of four lights, two panes per light. The left gable end exhibits asymmetrical fenestration with various sash windows.

Inside, the inner room features decorative plasterwork cornices with trailing foliage and a central achievement, believed to be the Bellew crest. Notable are the wide chamfered ceiling beam and run-out stops to each chamfered joist. A Tudor 4-centred arched doorway has a chamfered surround and plain spandrels. The hall shows hollow step-stopped chamfered ceiling beams and bressumers, with a 17th-century stop-chamfered door surround to the rear dairy extension. 18th-century joinery is found within a large cupboard recess, likely inserted into a former doorway to a stair turret, which was subsequently moved to the outshut behind the parlour. Chamfered ceiling beams are present in the room to the right of the lobby entry. Stop-chamfered door surrounds define the principal chamber over the hall and the chamber above the 17th-century wing. The roof structure over the hall and the room to the right of the lobby entry was replaced in the late 17th century with three trusses, featuring straight principals, lap-jointed collars, and two tiers of threaded purlins and a ridge purlin. A single, original truss with threaded purlins and ridge purlins, morticed and tenoned cranked collar, and short curved feet, is visible between the hall and the parlour end, set lower than the replacement trusses. There is no evidence of smoke-blackening.