Bellamarsh Barton

Bellamarsh Barton is a farmhouse of exceptional architectural importance, with origins in the early 15th century or possibly earlier, substantially remodelled in the mid-16th century and again in the 17th century. The building is constructed of roughcast stone with a slate roof, gabled at the ends, and features left-end stacks and an axial stack.

The original structure was a medieval open hall house of high status. The roof design, incorporating intermediate trusses, testifies to both the quality of the medieval building and its early date. The medieval roof does not extend the full length of the present main range but concludes at the left end with a closed truss, from which infill has been removed. This closed truss indicates that the lower end was unheated. The extreme left end of the main range has been re-roofed and may have been rebuilt. A rear left wing at right angles to the lower end is a two-storey mid-16th century solar wing; it was unclear at the time of survey in 1986 whether this wing had ever been heated. The hall may have been floored as late as the 17th century, when an axial hall stack was inserted backing onto a through passage, though this probably occurred earlier. The two-storey porch and rear stair wing were added in the 17th century, opposed to the porch. The plan as it stood at the end of the 17th century remains largely intact, consisting of two rooms and a through passage, a two-storey porch, a rear stair wing, and the rear left solar wing. Subsequent additions have been made at the rear. The house is two storeys, with a 1:1:1 window arrangement on the front and an approximately central two-storey gabled porch featuring a two-centred arch outer doorway and a canted timber cornice from a removed oriel. Modern casement windows have been installed throughout, with ground-floor windows being recent plastic replacements. The left end wall is buttressed, and the ground level slopes away at that end.

Internally, the medieval hall roof survives below a later roof and has been truncated above collar level. This is an outstanding survival. The feet of the principal rafters are plastered over in the upstairs rooms, and it is possible they may be base crucks. Seven smoke-blackened trusses, spaced approximately 65 inches apart, alternate between conventional arch-braced trusses of massive scantling with cranked collars and butt purlins, and intermediate trusses which are also arch-braced but with rafters and collars oversailing the principal rafters. Originally there was some form of superstructure above the collars of the intermediate trusses, as evidenced by four mortices (two to each side of the collar apex) on the top edge of each collar. The right-hand truss, at the higher end of the hall, features plain arch braces and is unsooted on the right side. Subsequent trusses have chamfered arch braces. One wind brace survives. The extreme left-hand truss appears to have been a closed truss and is sooted on the right side only. It differs in design from the others, with principal rafters jointed into the soffit of a straight collar, straight braces between the rafters and collar, and three peg-holes on the collar soffit, presumably for infilling which no longer exists. This medieval roof is exceptionally important. The solar wing has a roof of jointed cruck construction; the apex was not inspected.

The 17th-century hall is surprisingly plain. The axial beam is moulded on the front side and chamfered to the rear wall; a 20th-century grate possibly conceals an earlier fireplace. The lower end features a massive blocked fireplace of uncertain date and is paved with local limestone. The ground floor of the solar wing has deeply-chamfered cross beams with step stops. A deep cupboard in the thickness of the party wall with the lower end room may indicate the position of a former stack or stair, possibly a rear lateral stack to the lower end, later replaced by the present gable-end stack. The 17th-century porch has a moulded plaster cornice and stone corbels. The room over the porch features a splendid enriched rib coved plaster ceiling (Period Two, French style) with small pendants at the intersections of the geometric design, floral sprays, and a frieze of gryphons. The design and workmanship are sophisticated. The framed stair has oak treads and 18th-century plain, rectangular-section balusters.

The house is sited high above the farmyard, gable end to the road, with a flight of semi-circular stone steps leading up to the garden gate. The steps are included in the listing. Bellamarsh Barton is recorded in 1242 as Beldemerse. A large mill was formerly associated with the house and was the scene of bread riots during the Napoleonic Wars. Thomas Campion, a blacksmith from Ilsington, was deemed to have been the leader of the riot, and his execution, said to have taken place at Bellamarsh in 1795, was the last public hanging in the country. The mill has been demolished since 1952. The notable plasterwork and exceptional roof make Bellamarsh Barton a house of outstanding importance.