Sowton Barton

Sowton Barton is a large house with a medieval core dating to around the 16th century, expanded in two phases of 17th-century remodelling and addition. The building is situated in Dunsford.

The house is constructed of whitewashed rendered cob on stone rubble footings, with some granite used on the gable end wall of the rear wing. The roof is thatched with a half-hip at the left end and gable at the right end. There are end stacks, two granite axial stacks, and a gable end stack to the rear wing.

The medieval house extends from the left-hand axial stack to approximately one room in from the right-hand wall, representing the lower end of the building. Evidence in the roofspace shows it was originally a three-room house with a central two-bay hall divided from single-bay outer rooms by low screens. The outer bays were ceiled over first, possibly at different dates, while the hall remained open until later in the 17th century when the hall stack was inserted, possibly preceding the insertion of the hall ceiling. The rear wing, probably originally a kitchen wing, may date from the same period as the hall ceiling. No through passage exists now, though there may have been one behind the axial stack at the lower end of the hall. Evidence of a former newel stair exists in the rear wing. The right-hand end appears to be a later addition; the left-hand lower end room may have been an outbuilding or storage block and is separately roofed. A flat-roofed single-storey addition was built in the 20th century in the angle between the rear wing and the left-hand end of the house.

The house is two storeys, with a long asymmetrical six-window front. The eaves thatch is eyebrowed over the first-floor windows. A 20th-century porch with hipped thatched roof is positioned at the right, with a 20th-century glazed door to the left of the axial hall stack. Windows consist of small-paned probably 19th-century one-, two-, and three-light casements of six and eight panes per light, except for the window to the left of the 20th-century glazed door, which is a 17th-century four-light timber mullioned window with deep chamfered mullions. The rear wing has a similar first-floor three-light mullioned window on the left return and a very small two-light timber mullioned window with unmoulded round-headed lights, probably a stair light. A ground-floor window in the kitchen wing preserves its stanchions and saddle bars and is probably also 17th century.

Interior features include a fine four-bay medieval roof with considerable survival of 16th and 17th-century details. The medieval roof comprises jointed cruck trusses with cambered collars mortised into the principals, threaded purlins, and a diagonally-set ridge. The rafters, thatch, and battens are all heavily blackened. Closed trusses flank the two-bay hall; the left-hand closed truss infill is not sooted on the left-hand side, though the right-hand truss shows some sooting, suggesting the possibility of two open hearths. The 17th-century hall has a large fireplace with a 20th-century grate; the 17th-century timber lintel is moulded and still visible, and the chamfered jambs are large single pieces of granite. The hall features a chamfered cross beam and a chamfered half-beam to the front wall, and an unusual arrangement of a chamfered step stopped ceiling beam approximately one metre in front of the stack extending only halfway across the depth of the room. A fine oak plank and muntin screen with wide planks and chamfered muntins at the inner end of the hall has the remains of what appears to be a Caernarvon arched doorway. To the left of the hall, a chamfered cross beam is truncated at a point that may indicate the left-hand side of the former passage. On the rear wall of this room, a partition wall, is an outstanding large moulded timber doorway with a rounded head, probably 17th century, and judging from its relation to a jointed cruck, not in its original position.

Sowton Barton was recorded in 1244. It is a fine example of a high-status medieval house with a rich history of evolution and distinguished external and internal features.