Town Barton

Town Barton

Former farmhouse dating from the early 17th century, possibly a remodelling of an earlier building, with alterations made in the early 19th century. The house is constructed of stone rubble with some granite dressings, partly whitewashed and plastered. It features end stacks and a projecting front lateral stack with a granite ashlar shaft to the main block, a projecting front end stack to the north-east wing, and a stack to the south-west wing, all beneath a hipped slate roof.

The building has a complex plan reflecting its evolution. The core is an early 17th-century single depth range, three rooms wide. Although no through passage survives, it likely originally ran to the left of centre, creating a three-room and passage plan with a lower end kitchen to the left (east), a hall heated by the front lateral stack, and an inner room parlour to the right. A front left (north-east) wing, also appearing to date from the 17th century, projects at right angles to the putative kitchen and is heated from an end stack but is not tied structurally into the main range. This wing contains a passage against the long inner wall which would have aligned with the putative through passage of the main block. A winder stair rises from this passage in the angle between the main block and the wing. In the early 19th century, the hall and parlour of the main block were remodelled to create an entrance hall between them, and a rear right (south-west) wing was added to provide an additional room and stair with access from the new entrance hall.

The house stands directly north of the church and overlooks the churchyard to the south. It is two storeys with an asymmetrical two-window front, deep eaves, and guttering stamped with lions' heads. To the left, the end of the north-east wing features a projecting dressed granite stack and a granite chamfered doorframe with a square-headed hoodmould and a plank and stud door leading into a passage. An achievement bearing the arms of the Doddiscomb family is fixed over the door and may have originated from a monument in the church. To the right, the main range displays the old projecting hall stack to the left, an early 19th-century porch on columns with a panelled front door and rectangular fanlight, a two-light 19th-century transomed timber casement with glazing bars above the front door, and 16-pane sashes to the right. A stair turret bulge occupies the angle between the wing and main block and contains a two-light timber casement. A two-light timber casement lights the passage on the inner return of the wing. Other windows are a mixture of high transomed timber casements and sashes with glazing bars.

Internally, three fireplaces from the early 17th-century range survive. The massive kitchen fireplace in the left end rear room features a chamfered stopped timber lintel and has been slightly reduced in size, possibly concealing a curing chamber. The kitchen has a high ceiling with a chamfered crossbeam with run-out stops. The fireplace to the projecting front lateral stack (the former hall stack) is massive with a chamfered granite lintel and jambs, now partly concealed by an early 19th-century partition wall. The parlour fireplace is also granite, with roll-moulded jambs and lintel. The 19th-century entrance hall between the parlour and 17th-century hall contains an excellent moulded timber doorframe at the rear with elaborate stops, dated 1604 on the lintel with the initials WB and EB; it is unclear whether this doorframe remains in its original position. The front left wing, reduced to a dairy at one time, has an open fireplace with a chamfered stopped lintel and one chamfered granite jamb. Most joinery dates from the early 19th century, including a stick baluster stair with turned newels and a ramped handrail, or is 20th-century work. Moulded cornices survive in the passage of the front wing and the 17th-century parlour and are of early 19th-century date.

The roof, not inspected, is reported to be conventional early 19th-century king post and strut throughout. Remnants of dressed granite in the garden to the north suggest that the house may formerly have included other ranges which no longer exist. The building has group value with the adjacent church.