Great Barlington Farmhouse And Adjoining Front Garden Walls

Great Barlington Farmhouse and Adjoining Front Garden Walls

A farmhouse of early 18th-century date, possibly altered in the early 19th century, with minor late 19th or early 20th-century alterations and additions. The main structure is rendered stone with cob at the tops of walls, topped by a hipped roof now covered with 20th-century slates, replacing original scantle slates. A brick axial stack sits off-centre to the left, and a rendered external end stack stands to the right. Late 19th-century additions of roughly squared stone rubble with red brick dressings and monopitch Welsh-slate roofs were made, and the rear wing was partly rebuilt around 1900 with red-brick dressings. The front garden is enclosed by roughly squared stone rubble walls, dating from around 1900, with curved ramps and a central gateway featuring pyramidal-capped square brick piers serving as a retaining wall on the right-hand side.

The house follows a three-room plan facing the farmyard to the west, with the ground falling away to the left. The layout comprises a central hall with a kitchen to the left and parlour to the right. An axial stack lies between the central hall and kitchen, with an external end stack serving the right-hand room. Two parallel early 18th-century wings project at right angles to the rear, and a short staircase wing rises behind the kitchen. A passage runs along the rear of the kitchen, leading to the staircase hall. An entrance passage was inserted into the right-hand end of the hall, probably in the early 19th century or later 19th century, interrupting the 18th-century cornice. The surviving early 18th-century three-flight square-well staircase was partly rebuilt, possibly following a fire, in the late 19th or early 20th century. An 18th-century or later lean-to outshut exists at the rear of the right-hand end, and a circa 1900 lean-to dairy outshut extends from the left-hand end, with a porch projecting to the front. A recess in the rear wall of the hall, facing the staircase, suggests there may have once been large double doors between the hall and staircase hall. The front may originally have had a central entrance and the current asymmetrical arrangement may be an early 19th-century alteration, as the front was probably refenestrated in old openings during the early 19th century. This evidence includes early 19th-century internal mouldings to glazing bars and a first-floor left-hand sash pane dated circa 1830s. Despite the house being apparently newly built in the early 18th century, the traditional plan suggests it was probably erected on the site of an earlier house.

The building rises two storeys, formerly with an attic, and has one-storey outshuts.

The exterior displays an almost symmetrical four-window front with equally spaced windows, except for a central ground-floor window. The windows are 18th or early 19th-century boxed glazing bar sashes, retaining old crown glass: 12-pane central windows and 16-pane end windows. The right-hand sashes have slightly segmental heads. The lower leaf of the left-hand first-floor sash is a late 20th-century replacement with simplified internal mouldings. A doorway between the first and second ground-floor windows from the right has a 20th-century glazed door. The end wall of the rear service wing features circa 1900 red-brick dressings and a ground-floor 18th-century sash with circa 1900 brick dressings. The rear of the staircase wing displays a tall round-arched window, rebuilt in the 20th century, lighting the half landing.

The interior of the central hall retains an 18th-century moulded plaster cornice. An inserted passage occupies the right-hand end. The principal ground-floor room to the right contains an 18th-century door with six raised and fielded panels and a moulded architrave, alongside a very fine large early 18th-century round-arched niche in the rear wall. This niche is a particularly notable feature, comprising a cupboard with pilastered surround similar in form to a doorcase, with painted graining. It features flanking fluted Doric pilasters with egg-and-dart ornament to each echinus, supporting an entablature with triglyph frieze and moulded cornice that breaks forward over the pilasters. Two large cupboard doors, each of three raised and fielded panels, are flanked by a smaller lower cupboard with two doors, each of one raised and fielded panel. All doors retain 18th-century H-hinges with shaped ends. A moulded dado rail separates the upper and lower cupboards. Within the upper cupboard sits a round-arched semi-circular plan niche with moulded architrave, fluted scrolled key, flanking beaded pilasters with moulded imposts and bases, and three moulded double-ogee shaped shelves. The arch head is painted with an unfaded red background and a central coat of arms set within a gilded Baroque cartouche with husk drops and large crossed palm fronds below. This niche's quality suggests it may have been introduced from a more important neighbouring house, though the staircase was clearly of similar quality before later alterations.

The kitchen features an open fireplace with a plain wooden lintel, an arched recess in the front wall (probably formerly a cream hob), and a cupboard in the left-hand end wall with two two-panelled doors and H-hinges. A dairy to the left of the kitchen retains slate shelves.

The staircase, circa 1710–20, is a painted wooden three-flight square-well design, partly rebuilt in the late 19th century. It includes landings, a 19th-century open string with cut brackets, 19th-century chamfered square balusters (three per tread) with stepped stops, 18th-century columnar newel posts, and ramped handrails with curved knees. The lower two flights have an 19th-century handrail, while the upper two flights retain an 18th-century toad-backed moulded handrail. The two lower flights preserve early 18th-century raised and fielded panelling and an 18th-century cupboard door with six raised and fielded panels. A wide recess in the wall opposite the foot of the stairs may indicate a blocked doorway. An 18th-century door leading to the outshut at the rear of the right-hand end has six raised and fielded panels and a pegged beaded wooden frame.

The central bedroom contains an 18th-century moulded plaster cornice and a wall cupboard with two moulded panels to each door. The right-hand bedroom has an 18th-century door with two large raised and fielded panels. Most old doors throughout the house feature pegged beaded wooden frames.

The 18th-century roof spans seven bays over the main range, with trusses consisting of straight principals with notched pegged mortice-and-tenoned apices and pegged lap-jointed collars. Two pairs of butt purlins support old rafters, though some are late 20th-century replacements, and rafters are pegged into purlins. Similar roofs cover the rear wings, with a two-bay roof over the left-hand wing. The roof formerly contained attic rooms, now mostly removed. Mortice-and-tenoned floor joists span the depth, and the former attic rooms were divided by lath-and-plastered stud partitions with outside walls in line with the lower purlins and ceilings at the level of the upper purlins. These partitions and ceilings were somewhat dilapidated at the time of survey in February 1988. Graffiti appears on partitions in the left-hand rear wing, executed in red paint and including the date 1753, the names John Hill and Samuel Norman, and a crude picture of a chicken. An old winder stair formerly connected the first floor to the attic, though it was mostly removed in the late 20th century; only the top few flights survive.

This house is particularly notable for its well-preserved early 18th-century round-arched niche and surround in the right-hand room. Wansley Barton, nearby, also possesses early 18th-century niches and pilasters of similar quality, though smaller and plainer. Great Barlington Farmhouse forms part of a complete farmstead group, which also includes two ranges of early 18th-century farm buildings.