Towsington Barton

Towsington Barton is a farmhouse, likely dating to a late 17th-century remodelling of an earlier building. The construction is a mix of whitewashed cob and Heavitree brecchia stone. The right-hand stack is cob with a brick shaft, while the left-hand stack is brecchia with a brick shaft. The roof is slate, originally thatched, and gabled at each end. The house has a U-shaped plan, comprising a main range double depth, two rooms wide, with a central passage leading to heated rooms on either side. Narrower service rooms are positioned behind the principal rooms, and rear left and right outshots are under catslide roofs. Variations in building materials suggest an evolving house, with the present plan representing a late 17th-century arrangement. The layout includes a large hall/kitchen to the right of the entrance passage, a smaller parlour to the left, narrow service rooms to the rear, a first-floor corridor above, and further service rooms in the rear outshots. A projection in the front right corner likely indicates the original location of a late 17th-century winder stair. A straight stair at the rear of the parlour may have been the late 17th-century service stair, while a second straight stair at the rear of the hall/kitchen was probably added in the early 19th century. A 20th-century flat-roofed single-story addition fills the space between the outshots. The asymmetrical front has three windows, with a gabled porch to the left of centre and a shallow projection at the right end. The windows are largely 20th-century small-pane casements. A small 2-light timber mullioned window on the right return was moved from the rear left outshut but replaced a similar window originally in that position. Internally, the hall/kitchen has a large rough-hewn cross beam, a large open fireplace with a Heavitree brecchia ashlar jamb and a replaced timber lintel, and remnants of two bread ovens with surviving arches. The parlour features a similar cross beam and a brecchia ashlar fireplace with a timber lintel, with blocked recesses that may have been windows. The service room behind the parlour is fitted as an early 19th-century larder, featuring a tiled floor and slate-topped benches. A 19th-century stair with stick balusters and turned newels is located at the rear of the hall/kitchen. Fragments of a moulded plaster cornice remain in a first-floor room to the left. The roofspace was not inspected, but an earlier roof remains beneath the current roof; the principal rafters are straight and roughly carpentered. Towsington Barton exemplifies a plan transitional between single-depth and fully double-depth houses.