Holcombe Burnell Barton

Holcombe Burnell Barton is a manor house of substantial historical importance, largely dating from the late 16th and early 17th centuries with some late 17th-century refurbishment and survival of early 16th-century features. The house underwent major restoration in the 1930s. The building is constructed in Heavitree stone rubble with some Beerstone, incorporates some timber windows, and has a slate roof gabled at the ends with projecting gable end stacks. The left return of the main range and rear left wing are roughcast.

The house is planned in a U-shape with an approximately symmetrical main range that is one room deep. It contains a central cross passage with the hall to the left and parlour to the right, a rear corridor, and rear left and right wings forming a narrow rear courtyard. The rear left wing houses the old kitchen, while the rear right wing contains a second parlour and fine first-floor chamber. A projecting turret on the right return at the junction of the rear wing and main range serves as a porch.

Although the fabric appears consistent with a single-build late 16th or early 17th-century house, some earlier internal features survive. A section of wall projecting forward from the left side of the main range suggests that an earlier front left wing once existed. Sir Thomas Dennis (1480–1561) built a house on the site, and it is possible that the present structure represents a contraction and remodelling of an earlier, larger house. In the late 17th century, part of the front range was refurbished and the rear corridor created. In the 1930s substantial restoration occurred, including new timber windows copied from the originals, a new hall window to the front range, and some timber-frame internal partitions. A single-storey kitchen adjoining the right end probably adapted a former dairy. A single-storey rear entrance hall was added between the rear wings.

The building is two storeys. The front is approximately symmetrical with three windows and regular fenestration of Beerstone ovolo-moulded mullioned windows with hood-moulds and square-leaded panes. The first-floor windows are four-light; the ground-floor window to the right is five-light under a relieving arch; the ground-floor window to the left, the hall window, is a sympathetic 1930s replacement, five-light with a high transom and relieving arch. The central open porch has a sloping slated roof carried on stone cheeks which rise above the porch roof as buttresses with set-offs. A reused 19th-century Gothic front door opens to the cross passage.

The left return of the main range has a similar Beerstone three-light window and a similar first-floor window to the right return. The rear wings have timber and Beerstone mullioned windows all with square-leaded panes, the stone windows confined to the parlour (right-hand) wing. The garden elevation of the kitchen (left) wing has scattered fenestration of two four-light, three one-light, and one three-light 1930s copy window all with replaced timber hood-moulds. A small two-light stone window on the ground floor of the wing (courtyard elevation) lights a curious cupboard adjoining the kitchen stack. The garden elevation of the parlour wing has one ground and one first-floor four-light mullioned Beerstone window (with some replacement of mullions), a three-light timber mullioned stair window, and two timber one-light windows. The courtyard elevation has a blocked ground-floor Beerstone window and two first-floor 1930s timber mullioned windows. The remains of a wall and a blocked first-floor opening on the gable end of the wing suggest that there may have been an external stair turret giving access from the parlour to the first-floor chamber above. A gabled two-storey projection on the garden elevation of the parlour wing is used as a second entrance and clearly postdates the wing.

Interior

The hall is largely late 17th-century with bolection-moulded panelling, an open fireplace with chamfered Posbury stone jambs with elaborate stops, and a moulded timber lintel. Two notable carved cross beams probably date from the early 16th century; they may be reused or retained from an earlier arrangement. They are vine-carved on the soffit with vine and foliage carving on the sides and are unstopped.

The parlour has a fine decorated plaster ceiling, dating from circa the late 16th or early 17th century, with a geometric design of ribs enriched by tulips and other flowers. Plaster motifs on the walls include a representation of an owl; some of the motifs are probably 20th-century additions. The fireplace has Beerstone jambs carved with various motifs and a carved timber lintel with shields. The remains of a figure between obelisks survives on the rear wall of the fireplace. Fluted plaster pilasters in each corner of the room extend to the 20th-century panelled dado.

The first-floor room above the parlour has a fine overmantel, a plaster cartouche with an oval painting on plaster illustrating an allegorical scene, possibly God and Mammon. Both the ground and first floors have a number of good chamfered or moulded stopped doorways, some with circa 1700 two-panel doors.

The 1930s work is of high quality craftsmanship and includes a bathroom entirely painted with artificial marbling.

Roof Structure

The roof structure is unusual for the region and combines the use of pegs and rails. There are no principal rafters but rather closely-spaced common rafters halved and pegged at the apex with straight collars lap-dovetailed into the rafters and fixed with nails. The rafters are fixed to timber wallplates, some with nails. The design of the roof is consistent across the wings and main range.

This is an outstanding house with particularly significant interior features, most notably the plasterwork.