Coombe Barton And Adjoining Front Garden Walls

Overview and Dating

A barton, now used as a house, probably dating from around 1500, with alterations in the late 16th or early 17th century. The building was restored and partly rebuilt in the late 19th century, with further alterations probably around 1900 and some minor late 20th-century changes.

Construction

The front is built of squared and coursed stone with limestone ashlar dressings. The right-hand wing and rear wall were rebuilt in snecked dressed stone, while the remainder is mostly uncoursed stone rubble with some red brick dressings. The roofs are gable-ended with Welsh slate and pierced tile ridge-cresting. The building has square stone lateral and end stacks with weatherings, though the hall stack is rendered, and a later brick lateral stack to the left. The front garden walls are of roughly squared and coursed stone with rounded copings and dressed (almost ashlar) stone gate piers.

Plan and Historical Development

The house follows a three-room and cross-passage plan (probably formerly a through passage), facing approximately north on ground that falls to the right. The hall has an integral lateral stack to the front and is lit by a large mullioned window to the left of the stack. The hall was probably originally open to the roof and later ceiled, probably in the late 16th or early 17th century, when first-floor or attic rooms were inserted over the present ceiling, probably in the late 19th century or around 1900, at the lintel level of the hall window. A gallery at the lower (right-hand) end of the hall is now around 1900 in date but probably replaces an earlier structure.

To the right of the hall is a passage with a former service room (latterly a kitchen) to its right, having an integral end stack. A staircase at the rear of the former kitchen rises from the end of the passage and is probably a 17th-century insertion, though apparently rebuilt in the late 19th century. A gabled wing projects to the front of the passage and former kitchen, probably representing late 19th-century rebuilding or refacing. It incorporates a porch to the left, leading to the passage, and a pantry to the right.

The former inner room to the left of the hall has an integral lateral stack to the front. The front wall of the hall range was probably refaced in the early 17th century, creating a narrow first-floor passage between the hall stack and the later refacing, leading to a small chamber over the hall window. The eaves were probably raised over the hall and inner room end, probably in the late 16th or early 17th century.

Substantial late 19th-century restoration and rebuilding included much of the rear wall and the left-hand end wall, with the addition of a flight of external steps leading to the first floor, and the front entrance wing. The floor level of the left-hand ground-floor room was also probably raised at the same time. The house was almost completely reroofed in the late 19th century, except for one truss incorporated in the full-height masonry wall between the passage and the lower-end room.

A former service wing projects at right angles to the front of the right-hand end room, apparently late 19th century but said to be earlier (possibly largely rebuilt in the 19th century, as suggested by straight joints in the gable end to the front and right-hand gable end of the main range). A lower integral lateral stack to the front of the right-hand end room was probably inserted when the right-hand end wing was added or rebuilt. A probably 19th-century outshut at the rear of the right-hand end of the house was probably reduced in the late 20th century.

The house is two storeys, though probably formerly two storeys and attic or three storeys (evidenced by a blocked rear window in the attic). The service wing is one storey but is said to have been two storeys. Mostly 19th-century adjoining walls enclose the front and left-hand sides of the front garden, with a gateway to the right flanked by mid to late 17th-century (possibly rebuilt) gate piers.

Exterior Description

The front is asymmetrical. The hall range to the left has a chamfered plinth. A tall restored mullioned stone window lights the hall, with four hollow-chamfered arched lights, a central king mullion, chamfered cill, moulded reveals and head, a hoodmould with carved square stops, and a four-centred relieving arch. A small ground-floor pierced quatrefoil opening in the front wall to the left of the stack has a central carved square fleuron.

The right-hand wing has a pair of first-floor square-headed mullioned stone windows, each with two hollow-chamfered four-centred arched lights, returned hoodmoulds with carved square stops, and relieving arches. A ground-floor stone window to the right has three hollow-chamfered four-centred arched lights, a hoodmould with carved square stops, and an elliptical relieving arch. The windows have 19th-century diamond-leaded panes.

A 16th-century stilted four-centred arched entrance to the left has Pevsner type-A jambs (moulded capitals to the main shafts and continuous mouldings between), two outer hollow mouldings, and a hoodmould with carved square stops (the left-hand stop carved with a shield). The interior of the porch has a quarry-tiled floor and plastered walls. A late 19th-century Tudor Gothic style door is set within the porch. A carved slate coat of arms (probably of the Wollocombe family) set in a square recess in the apex of the front gable of the wing has a hoodmould with carved square stops. A ground-floor pierced quatrefoil opening is also present in the left-hand side of the porch.

The one-storey wing projecting to the front of the right-hand end has a pair of small-paned two-light wooden casements in the left-hand side; the left-hand one is probably an insertion and the right-hand one replaces a doorway (evidenced by straight joints below). A doorway to the right has a 20th-century door and dressed stone segmental-arched head. Straight joints in the gable end to the front suggest later rebuilding.

The left-hand gable end of the main range has a ground-floor around 1900 doorway with a plank door and bullnose brick reveals and segmental head, and a first-floor late 19th-century plank door with pegged wooden frame and dressed stone segmental head, approached by a flight of external stone steps with slate treads. The right-hand gable end of the main range has a vertical straight joint to the left, suggesting the front wall of the right-hand end was rebuilt when the front service wing was added, and straight joints flanking the integral stack, suggesting the eaves have been raised at this end of the house too.

The rear is asymmetrically fenestrated with mostly late 19th-century wooden casements, but also nine pairs of first-floor around 1900 plate-glass sashes.

The gateway in the front garden wall has two late 17th-century square piers with cavetto-moulded plinths, scrolled carvings to the front corner of the base of each pier, and pyramidal caps. A pair of late 19th-century wrought-iron gates is present.

Interior Features

The probably 17th-century hall fireplace has ovolo-moulded stone jambs, herringbone stonework at the rear, and a bread oven with a cast-iron door. A huge early 17th-century plaster overmantel consists of the arms of the Wollocombe family set in a strapwork cartouche with two figures and two fronds below. The overmantel was probably lowered when the first floor was inserted, and the fireplace probably reduced in height at the same time (no wooden lintel was apparent at the time of survey in January 1988). A tall narrow chamber to the left of the fireplace has plastered walls, is ventilated by the pierced quatrefoil in the front wall, and has a plank door.

An around 1900 wooden gallery at the lower (right-hand) end of the hall has a chamfered beam supported on two chamfered square posts and a wooden balustrade. The hall also has an around 1900 dado rail and around 1900 plastered walls and ceiling.

The left-hand ground-floor room has a 17th-century ovolo-moulded dressed-stone segmental-arched fireplace (partly collapsed at the time of survey) with a dressed stone relieving arch. The fireplace was formerly higher but the floor was raised in the late 19th century. An old (probably 18th-century) carved square hoodmould stop was discovered in the fireplace during restoration at the time of survey, with raised lettering reading "R/17". A small chamber to the left of the fireplace has a plank door. 19th-century floor joists and wooden slips are visible in the 19th-century rear wall (which was unplastered at the time of survey).

Plain joists span the passage at the lower end of the hall. Two doors lead from the passage to the lower end rooms: one to the pantry in the room adjoining the porch, and a plank door with beaded wooden frame into the right-hand end room (latterly the kitchen). The former kitchen has a chamfered cross beam and half beam to the right with run-out bar stops, and plain joists. An open fireplace to the right has plain jambs, a cut-back wooden lintel, and a cloam oven with a 19th-century cast-iron door. The pantry has a quarry tile floor.

The first-floor room over the passage and gallery has large scantling ceiling joists. The first-floor left-hand end room (approached externally) has a section of late 15th or early 16th-century moulded wall plate along the rear wall. Further evidence of the former around 1500 roof over this room includes blocked closely-spaced sockets for the feet of former trusses above the wall-plate level in the front and rear walls, and the shadow line of a former arched-braced (or cruck) truss on the masonry wall between the end room and the hall.

A curious first-floor passage between the hall stack and front wall leads to a small chamber over the hall window, possibly created after a later refacing of the front of the house. The chamber is floored with large old boards. A wooden lintel in the wall at the right-hand end of the passage possibly marks a former doorway leading into the porch.

Roof Structure

The roof was mostly rebuilt in the late 19th or around 1900 with machine-sawn tie-beam trusses. One 16th or early 17th-century unblackened truss remains against the upper (left-hand) side of the full-height masonry wall between the passage and the lower-end room. The truss consists of straight principals with sockets for former threaded purlins and a curved mortice and tenoned collar. A blocked former attic or second-floor window in the rear wall of the hall section has splayed jambs.

Historical Note

Coombe Barton was formerly the Wollacombe family home.