Hams Barton

Hams Barton is a large house of high status, probably dating from the early 16th century or earlier, with significant early 17th-century remodelling and late 19th-century alterations and extensions. It stands as an important survival of a building that was once the Manor House.

The house is constructed of local grey limestone rubble with a slate roof of very small slates, partly replaced with asbestos slates. The heating and chimney arrangements reflect its complex development: axial stacks serve the main range and the solar wing, a lateral stack heats the solar wing, and another lateral stack serves the wing extension.

The original plan appears to have been a courtyard arrangement centred on a south-facing three-room-and-through-passage range on the north side. This range contained an inner room at the left (now missing), an open hall with a stack at the higher end, a through passage, and an unheated lower end room. The east range, positioned at right angles to the lower end, may have been an early 16th-century kitchen wing. Stone foundations mark the position of the west range; the south range now functions as a single-storey farm building.

In the early 17th century the house underwent major remodelling. The east wing, possibly originally single-storey, was recast to contain a ground floor kitchen with a massive gable-end fireplace and, above it, a high-quality solar featuring plasterwork dated 1621 and the armorial bearings of Bennett Hunt, Mayor of Exeter. The south range was also remodelled, though not necessarily at the same date. The hall was floored and given a high-status ceiling, and first-floor chambers were created with plank-and-muntin partition walls. A stair was inserted in the through passage, and the former lower end room was divided into two service rooms serving the kitchen. At a later date, probably in the 18th or 19th century, an internal partition adjacent to the long front wall of the east wing created a service corridor leading to a stair hall between the old kitchen and the service rooms at the lower end of the south range. An 18th or 19th-century one-room addition or rebuilding exists at the south end of the east wing. Late 19th-century refenestration and late 20th-century renovations have occurred.

The house stands two storeys high. The south elevation, comprising the hall range, presents an asymmetrical two-plus-one-window front with a two-storey gabled porch to the right, accessing the through passage, and the front wall of the hall to the left. The porch's top storey is rendered with two small windows, one above the other, renewed in the 20th century. The porch shows evidence of rebuilding: behind the square-headed outer doorway lies a second doorway with slightly curved Beerstone jambs bearing decayed bar stops and a moulded timber lintel with step stops. Inside, the porch contains stone rubble benches with timber seats and a deeply splayed slit window. The front door itself sits in a moulded granite Tudor-arched doorway and comprises four massive planks with studs and an old backplate. The south wall of the hall displays two first-floor and two ground-floor two-light granite mullioned windows (two mullions missing); the first-floor windows have chamfered architraves and the ground-floor windows have moulded architraves.

The west elevation of the solar wing is asymmetrical, with two windows: the old kitchen and solar to the left and a probably 18th or 19th-century block to the right under a lower roofline. Walling at the junction indicates the old solar wing formerly extended further right. A 20th-century porch with lean-to roof stands at the left end of the lower block. The left-hand block is gabled to the front at its centre, featuring a 19th-century tripartite first-floor sash and a two-light granite mullioned ground-floor window (mullion missing) with a hood-mould. The right-hand block has a 19th-century tripartite first-floor sash and a two-light ground-floor casement with small panes.

The east elevation of the solar wing and the end of the south range is asymmetrical with three windows. The gable end of the south range, to the right, displays two ground-floor two-light granite mullioned windows (one blocked, retaining saddle bars and stanchions) and one ground-floor plus two first-floor 19th-century sashes with brick jambs. The solar, to the left, is gabled to the front at its right, featuring a 19th-century sash window beneath a 17th-century timber hood-mould, two ground-floor 19th-century tripartite sashes, and a 12-pane sash to the lower block at the left end.

The north elevation of the hall range is asymmetrical with four windows. A farm building adjoins at the left end, and two single-storey 20th-century lean-tos occupy the centre and right. Steps lead up to the granite arched chamfered through-passage doorway at the left. Four first-floor two-light granite mullioned windows (some mullions missing) are present; one is blocked but retains saddle bars and stanchions. The ground floor contains corresponding fenestration.

The interior contains numerous high-quality 16th and 17th-century features. Seven bays of arched-braced roof trusses survive in the south range, each with two tiers of wind braces, representing the open hall phase. The hall fireplace displays a chamfered stopped granite lintel. A rounded doorway adjacent to the stack probably originally led to a stair turret providing access to the first floor of the inner room. On the rear wall the hall retains a blocked two-light granite mullioned window. Twentieth-century renovations revealed painted plasterwork, now concealed by the inserted early 17th-century ceiling, which features a moulded cross beam and moulded stopped joists. The hall has been partly repartitioned, but the plank-and-muntin screen to the passage remains intact, its muntins chamfered with step stops. The partition at the lower end of the passage has widely spaced muntins with plaster infill. The stair in the passage comprises large timber baulks with a post for a handrail.

The kitchen contains a massive fireplace with a granite lintel, truncated when the service corridor was inserted, and features a chamfered cross beam with scroll stops. The lower end room of the south range has a cross beam morticed for a partition no longer extant. On the first floor above this room, moulded doorways with urn stops provide access to the solar and to the first-floor room at the lower end of the south range, which appears to have functioned as a parlour and retains a blocked two-light granite mullioned window on its rear wall. The foot of one truss, plastered over and moulded, suggests there was originally an elaborate ceiling.

The first-floor chambers above the hall feature plank-and-muntin partition walls. The most spectacular interior feature is the solar, which displays a splendid enriched rib barrel-vaulted ceiling with decorated cornice and central pendant in the French style. The chimneypiece on the long wall carries a plaster overmantel bearing the arms of Bennett Hunt and dated 1621. A plaster relief of the Royal Arms appears on the end wall. Late 20th-century wall panelling was imported from elsewhere; the original panelling may have been of linenfold design. Linenfold panelling was discovered reused in the pig sties; one section was rescued and is now resited in the stair.

Hams Barton represents an important 16th and 17th-century house of considerable architectural and historical significance, distinguished by an exceptional wealth of outstanding interior features.