Leigh Barton

Leigh Barton is an early 16th-century farmhouse, substantially altered in 1847 for the Duke of Bedford, built of Hurdwick stone rubble with a slate roof gabled at the ends and three stone stacks (two at the gable ends, one on the ridge).

The present building is probably a fragment of a large courtyard plan house, likely to have been the "Leigh" referred to as one of the original endowments to Tavistock Abbey, though this identification cannot be made with certainty. The surviving range originally comprised three rooms and a through passage with an open hall associated with a stack and a ceiled heated inner room. The roof trusses are not smoke-blackened and are consistent in design throughout the length of the range, appearing to be early 16th-century. The trusses are paired above the former passage. The ceiling of the inner room and the ceiling of a small rectangular room, possibly an oriel giving off the inner room, also appear to be early 16th-century. Alternatively, there may have been a great chamber with no open hall, though no visible evidence of an early fireplace at first floor level survives. The present plan falls under a two-span roof; the rear span is an addition and may represent the re-roofing of a stair turret at the rear of the inner room, the adjoining oriel, and the provision of a later stair at the rear of the former through passage. A rear right wing forms an L-plan.

The building is two storeys. The five-bay asymmetrical front appears to have been largely refaced in 1847 (datestone), when the house was refenestrated and the mullioned windows were removed to Morwell in Tavistock Hamlets. A slightly advanced gabled bay in the centre bears the date 1847 in the gable and may represent either the stub of an early wing or a desire for symmetry. The plinth appears original only to the left of the central bay, which has a three-light 19th-century timber casement window with a high transom and a similar smaller window to the first floor. An off-centre moulded segmental granite doorway lies to the right of the central bay. The ground floor window to the right is a three-light 19th-century timber casement with high transom. The remaining windows are two-light 19th-century casements with eight panes per light; the first floor windows are half-dormers with slate-hung gables. A variation in the plinth at the right-hand end of the front suggests rebuilding has occurred there, which contains a blocked chamfered architrave for a mullioned window and a chamfered ogee-headed slit window at approximately first floor level. The right-hand end also appears to have two blocked quatrefoil lights.

Interior: Twelve trusses with principals with curved feet, appearing to be raised crucks. The trusses have cambered chamfered collars mortised into the principals with the chamfers continuing on to the principals. Two tiers of chamfered purlins and a diagonally-set ridge with original rafters intact. The trusses are paired over the former through passage but otherwise identical. At the lower end the principals rest on a moulded timber bressumer visible in one upstairs room. The inner room has a fine ceiling with long moulded axial beams carried on moulded granite corbels. The beams have wide bar run-out stops. A moulded granite fireplace is present. The small rectangular room giving off the inner room has three less elaborately moulded axial beams with stops. A formerly solid wall with a small doorway between this and the inner room has been removed. The middle room has a large moulded granite fireplace and three moulded granite corbels to the front wall, presumably formerly supporting cross beams. A blocked chamfered arched doorway on the rear wall is puzzling. The lower end room has a good mid-19th-century chimneypiece.

Evidence for the scale of the original building at Leigh is apparent from numerous moulded and worked granite stones in the garden, including what may be gatepier finials with blind flamboyant tracery.