Malston Barton

Malston Barton is a farmhouse that originated in the 15th century and was altered and extended during the 17th century, before undergoing heavy remodelling in the late 19th or early 20th century. The walls are constructed of slatestone rubble, rendered at the front, with a hipped slate roof. There are brick stacks: a lateral stack at the front, an axial stack, and a stack on a projecting rubble base at the left end.

The building has an L-shaped plan. The front range contains a wide through passage at its right-hand end, with two rooms to the left and an axial passage running behind them leading to a large room at the end. The wing behind this was possibly originally a single room but is now divided into two rooms with a staircase. The original medieval plan is difficult to interpret. The presence of a passage at the end of the front range is unusual and suggests the house may have been truncated at the right-hand end. The extent of later remodelling means little medieval fabric may survive, though the sections downhill from the passage may represent the original lower end. It is possible the house originally formed a courtyard plan with more than one wing.

The first discernible remodelling occurred in the early to mid-17th century, when the room at the left-hand end was fitted with a very wide fireplace and used as a kitchen. The room between it and the passage was probably a hall, with a stack backing onto the passage, though it is uncertain whether this is an early stack. The rear wing dates from at least the 17th century and likely served a service function, as it has no fireplace on the ground floor. Further alterations took place in the late 19th or early 20th century, when the central room was subdivided with a passage inserted at its rear, and the first floor plan was probably altered.

The building is 2 storeys with a basement to the rear wing. The front elevation is asymmetrical with four windows of late 19th-century date, comprising four-light and three-light casements with mainly small panes. To the left of centre on the ground floor is a late 19th or early 20th-century four-pane sash. A shallow glazed porch of 20th-century date runs along the centre of the house and lights the right-hand room. At the right-hand end, the wall projects slightly and displays on the ground floor a fine tall 15th-century four-centred richly moulded arch, possibly of Beerstone. A similar opposing arch appears on the rear elevation to the left, considerably more eroded, with an arched hoodmould above, and is accompanied by a 19th-century two-light casement above. To the right of centre is a tall small-paned stairlight renewed in the late 20th century. The wing projecting from the right-hand end has a plank door in the corner and on its ground floor a three-light 19th-century small-paned window with two smaller casements above. On the other side of the wing the ground level drops to a basement, which is accessed by a door.

The interior passage has a stone-flagged floor. Just inside its front doorway in the left-hand wall is a 15th-century two-centred hollow chamfered arch, now blocked. The left-hand end room contains a very wide blocked fireplace with a chamfered wooden lintel. The room in the rear wing has 17th-century chamfered and step-stopped ceiling beams. In the room above is a 17th-century fireplace with an ovolo-moulded wooden lintel and dressed stone jambs. The first floor features several 18th-century fielded two-panel doors. There is no evidence of early roof timbers on the first floor, and according to the owner the timbers are very rough, likely dating from the 19th century.