Brightley Barton

Brightley Barton is a farmhouse of late 15th-century origin with early 17th-century rebuilding and addition, and a further 19th-century addition. The walls are rendered cob and rubble, with a gable-ended slate roof.

The building features multiple chimney stacks: a rubble front lateral stack with brick shaft, a brick gable-end stack to the inside rear wing, and a projecting rubble lateral stack with brick shaft to the side of the outer rear wing.

The original plan was a three-room-and-through-passage arrangement with the lower end to the left. It was almost certainly built as an open hall house with central hearth to the hall, though the full height solid wall between the hall and lower room creates uncertainty about whether the lower end was also open to the roof. Some doubt exists as to whether the lower end truss is smoke-blackened.

In the early 17th century the hall and higher end were virtually rebuilt with a lateral stack and projecting window bay to the hall. A parlour wing with side lateral stack was added to the rear of the inner room. During the late 18th century a staircase was inserted into the 17th-century wing. In the 19th century a parallel kitchen wing was added at the rear of the hall. The lower end was downgraded to agricultural status, probably in the 19th century, and has remained single storey, although the lower passage partition has been removed and its rear door blocked.

The exterior presents an asymmetrical front of two storeys with two windows above and three below. The left-hand window is a large 20th-century canted bay in the much lower left section. Other windows are late 19th-century four-pane sashes and 20th-century three and two-light casements. The left-hand windows are set in the projecting front wall of the hall, which also incorporates the lateral stack. A 20th-century lean-to porch sits at the right-hand end of the lower section with a late 19th or early 20th-century panelled and part-glazed door behind. Parallel gabled wings project from the rear to left and centre. The left gable end of the lower range has a small wooden-framed opening in its apex.

The interior contains surprisingly high-quality features. Both the hall and rear wing have high-quality ceilings with moulded axial and cornice beams. The hall has an open fireplace with a chamfered wooden lintel and pyramid stops. An early 18th-century fielded two-panel door leads to the inner room, which has chamfered axial beams. The inner room also retains a section of good-quality early 17th-century panelling with a carved frieze of scroll and rosette design. The rear wing contains a late 18th-century chinoiserie staircase.

The roof over the rear wing features cruck trusses with morticed collar and threaded purlins, which is not smoke-blackened. There is no access to the roof over the hall and inner room, and no evidence of early trusses remains. Over the single storey lower end, however, is an original massive cruck truss with face-pegged joint positioned very low down the post. The ridge no longer survives but was originally square set and clasped between the tops of the principals, resting on a small yoke. A light morticed collar is present. The truss is not obviously smoke-blackened, though given its early construction it may have been cleaned. A wooden-framed slit at the apex of the lower gable-end wall suggests it functioned as a vent to allow smoke to escape.

The external appearance gives little indication of the building's interesting and high-quality internal features and early origins. The development of the plan is notable in the way the higher end was greatly upgraded while the lower end remained single storey and declined to non-domestic status.