Bittadon Barton

Bittadon Barton is a house, originally a manor house, dating to the 16th and 17th centuries, with significant rebuilding in the late 18th century. The construction is mainly of rubble, with a rendered facade, but the inner face of the 17th-century wing features dressed stone. A two-storey gable-ended stair turret is located at the left gable end. The main range was rebuilt in the late 18th century with a symmetrical facade, and incorporates right-angled extensions from the 16th and 17th centuries at the rear, creating a three-sided courtyard plan. A further gable-ended two-storey extension projects from the stair turret, featuring a lateral rubble stack with an inward-sloping cap and brick above. The roofs are slate, hipped to the right of the main range with a lateral brick stack, and gable-ended to the left with a pair of diagonally set brick stacks. Various other rubble stacks with slated offsets, and heightened in brick, are also present.

The house has two storeys and a five-window front with single timber sash windows, 8 panes over 8 panes, flanking three sashes, 6 panes over 6 panes, and double sash windows, 6 panes over 6 panes. Single sashes, 6 panes over 6 panes are located on either side of a central 20th-century brick porch. The porch encloses a pointed arch entrance with a deeply recessed doorway and a panelled and half-glazed door of four panes with marginal glazing bars and a four-paned overlight. The recessed stair turret has a single timber sash, 8 panes over 8 panes, and a pantiled lean-to shed to the front, with three offset sashes, 6 panes over 6 panes, to the gable ends; the left-hand sash being inserted into a former large stair window opening. The inner north courtyard wall retains two sashes, 6 panes over 6 panes, and a similar sash to the right of a tripartite sash. Most of the openings have been altered.

The stair turret contains a late 17th-century dog-leg staircase with original treads and a heavy turned newel, and a moulded handrail (with added chamfer and stops to the lower flight). A few turned balusters remain on the upper flights and the top handrail. A roll-moulded surround to the ground floor doorcase gives access to the 17th-century wing and features an unusual foliated and floriated design, similar to that found at Ash Barton, Braunton. A doorcase at the base of the stairs has a panelled door and a chamfered surround with plain stops. A 17th-century plank door with cover strips is possibly reset in a courtyard outshut to the main range. Low dado panelling is found in a room at the extreme right-hand end of the main range. A stopped and chamfered fireplace lintel is present in the 17th-century wing stack. In the 20th century, ceilings were lowered in two principal bedrooms in the 17th-century wing to each side of the staircase landing, but 17th-century plaster cornices survive in the roof space – a foliated design at both ends of the room to the left and equine motifs with a central medallion at the upper end of the room to the right. A single 17th-century roof truss, formerly with threaded purlins, survives in the 17th-century wing, otherwise the roof was probably reroofed in the late 18th century.