Whiteleigh Barton Including Dairy And Stone Walls Adjoining To South

Whiteleigh Barton, including Dairy and Stone Walls adjoining to South

A farmhouse with probable 16th century origins, modernised in the mid and late 17th century, and substantially enlarged and rearranged in the late 19th century. The building is constructed of local stone rubble with later brick dressings and plastered fronts. Stone rubble stacks are fitted with 19th century brick chimney shafts, except for the hall which retains a tall chimney shaft of snecked stone. The roof is slate, formerly thatch over the older part.

The main block faces south. The plan reflects extensive late 19th century refurbishment which reorganised the functions of the original rooms and added a main entrance lobby and parlour crosswing. The historic core retains a traditional 3-room-and-through-passage plan. At the right (east) end is a kitchen with a gable-end stack. Next to it is a large room with a projecting rear lateral stack, now the dining room. A through passage separates this from a small room to the left heated by a front lateral stack. Behind this room a corridor connects to the main entrance hall, which contains the main staircase. At the left (west) end is a 2-room parlour crosswing facing west and projecting to the rear, each room with a gable-end stack.

The house is 2 storeys with secondary lean-to outshuts to the rear of the main block. The parlour front facing west has a symmetrical 2-window composition of late 19th century horned 4-pane sashes with larger ground floor windows in tripartite sashes, set in brick surrounds with low segmental arches above. The roof here is higher than the main block and gable-ended. The main south-facing front is irregular with 6 windows: the left 2-window section contains horned 4-pane sashes, while the remainder are 18th, 19th and 20th century casements with glazing bars. There are 3 front doorways: the main doorway (to the entrance lobby) is late 19th century with a part-glazed panelled door within a gabled brick porch; the central doorway is the original passage entrance with a 19th century plank door; the kitchen doorway at the right end contains a 19th century plank door with a monopitch hood. The gable-ended roof carries a 19th century timber-framed bellcote on its ridge.

The interior is largely the product of late 19th century refurbishment, with most structural carpentry concealed behind 19th century plaster. However, the original layout of the old house is well-preserved in the main block, and 16th and 17th century features are suspected. The former hall contains 2 boxed-in crossbeams and a blocked fireplace, though the 19th century chimneypiece indicates its original large size. The roofspace of the main block contains A-frame roof trusses of large scantling with straight principals showing at first floor level. These trusses are pegged together and are probably 17th century in date.

To the south of the passage, hall and inner room section of the main block is an attractive cobbled courtyard, completely enclosed. On the right (east) side a 19th century single-storey dairy block projects forward and is linked by a tall stone wall (including a doorway) to a linhay which forms the south side. The west side is formed by a tall stone rubble wall between the farmhouse and the linhay. Whiteleigh Barton is an interesting farmhouse with a good group of traditional farm buildings.