Place Barton

Place Barton is a house of considerable architectural interest, located in Ashton and formerly the seat of the Chudleighs from around 1320 to 1745. The building has early 16th-century or earlier origins, but has undergone substantial remodelling over the centuries, including thorough renovations undertaken in the 1930s.

The house is constructed of stone rubble with a slate roof, now gabled at the ends, though formerly thatched. It features end stacks, a front lateral stack, two axial stacks to the main block, and a rear lateral stack serving the main block and rear right wing.

The surviving structure appears to have once formed part of a larger courtyard arrangement, much of which has been lost. The main block is likely to have originally been the kitchen wing, although its surprisingly high quality roof raises questions about its original function. The present plan comprises a single-depth north block four rooms wide, with two single-room rear wings. A south-east block at right angles is part ruinous, with a cottage at its south end. The complex evolution of the building has been further complicated by the reuse of old timbers, probably during the 1930s renovations.

The north block contains two late 15th or early 16th-century doorways. The left-hand doorway faces a 20th-century stair and may originally have led into a cross passage. The right-hand doorway gives directly into the right-hand room, which remains single storey and was formerly heated by an open hearth, later replaced by a massive late 16th or early 17th-century kitchen fireplace. The adjacent room to the west is heated by a fireplace on its right-hand wall and contains an exceptionally fine roof serving the first-floor room above, probably a great chamber. The left-hand room, served by the front lateral stack, appears also to have functioned as a kitchen and incorporates an unusual rounded stone stair turret, rather awkwardly positioned within the room. The rear right wing is heated, whilst the rear left wing has a high quality roof. The south-east block is linked to the north block by a short section of wall with a late 15th or early 16th-century doorway; its north end is ruinous but includes the remains of a large fireplace, while to the south there is evidence of use as farm buildings. Exposed foundation stones parallel to the north block indicate a former range to the south.

The north elevation is a long, asymmetrical façade of ten windows, with the right end single storey and the remainder two storeys. A projecting front lateral stack with a bread oven stands to the left, with two moulded, slightly arched granite stopped doorways at the centre and right. The ground floor features 20th-century casements with diamond leaded panes, while the first floor contains six gabled dormers with 20th-century glazing. The left-end stack is corbelled out and heats the first floor only. The rear right wing has a granite-coped gable and granite quoins. The rear left wing features an outshut against the outer wall. The narrow space between the wings was filled in during the late 20th century.

The south-east elevation shows the rear of the cottage and a store to the left, with a section of walling to the right. The cottage has a rear lateral stack flanked by dormer windows, and a garage door serves the store, which has a ground-floor two-light granite mullioned window. The section of walling contains several blocked doorways with timber lintels, topped by a slightly arched moulded late 15th or early 16th-century granite doorway. The left return of the cottage displays a moulded brecchia window frame on the ground floor, probably reused from elsewhere, as a ventilation slit above suggests the cottage may originally have functioned as an outbuilding. The west elevation of the cottage shows an internal lateral stack, three ground-floor and one first-floor window, and pigeon holes below the eaves.

Internally, the north block displays a notable series of roofs and features of interest. The room at the right end, open to the roof timbers with a gallery jetted into it at the left, contains extensive 1930s carpentry. The gallery and dog-leg stair are mostly from the 1930s, though some of the moulded joists carrying the jetty appear to be 16th-century. The roof is problematic: a ceiled wagon of two bays with moulded ribs carried on moulded timber corbels, it may be entirely 1930s work fixed beneath the late medieval roof above. The massive kitchen fireplace at the right end features a cut stone segmental arched lintel extending the full width of the room, with several bread ovens and evidence for a spit arrangement. A massive moulded Beerstone lintel, probably the lintel of the hall fireplace, is fixed on the hearth. A second fireplace beneath the jetty is likely a 20th-century design reusing old jambs and a lintel, broken into the rear of the adjacent room's stack.

The two centre rooms are comparatively plain. The left-hand room has a blocked fireplace, a 16th-century oak doorframe with rounded arch on the rear wall, and a rough crossbeam. The extreme left-hand room contains reused 17th-century crossbeams, an open fireplace with cambered lintel, and a rounded stone newel stair turret with a granite doorway rebated for a door and steep, narrow stone stairs.

The roof over the right-hand room is puzzling: the ceiled wagon is an extraordinary roof type for a secular Devon building and surprisingly grand for a kitchen. The moulded ribs of slender scantling appear to have been applied in the 1930s to what is a late medieval sooted roof above, possibly incorporating jointed cruck principals with mortised collars. The next room to the left has a 16th-century roof of three bays with moulded arched brace design (most braces missing), moulded purlins, and two tiers of wind bracing, with no sooting on the timbers. To the left of this room is a truss with straight principals, probably 17th-century, and the extreme left room has a pair of curved braces and collar suggesting this end was once roofed at right angles to the main block. The two rear wings also contain roofs of interest: the rear left wing has two closely spaced arched brace trusses with chamfered braces and curved wind braces (one missing), while the rear right wing is of jointed cruck construction with side-pegged crucks.

The rear right wing has a chamfered stopped crossbeam.

Historically, Sir George Chudleigh, created baronet in 1622, initially sided with the Parliamentarians at the beginning of the Civil War but later transferred his loyalty to the King. In 1645 the house was garrisoned for the King and subsequently taken by the Parliamentarians, who garrisoned it themselves. By 1822, Lysons recorded the house as being largely in ruins, with part fitted up as a farmhouse.