The Barton Including Service Rooms Adjoining To The North

A farmhouse dating from the 16th century with major improvements in the 17th century, modernised in the early-to-mid 19th century. The building is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with stone rubble and cob stacks topped with 19th and 20th century brick. The roof is thatch, replaced by slate over the service rooms. It stands on level ground alongside the churchyard of the Church of St. Michael.

The building forms a U-shaped plan with a main block facing south, representing the historic core of the farmhouse. This main block originally followed a 3-room-and-through-passage arrangement, now essentially that of the late 17th century. The left end room serves as a parlour on the lower side of the passage and has a projecting gable-end stack. The present staircase, which blocks the rear of the passage, was probably constructed in the 17th century, as there is no evidence of another main stair. The hall contains a large projecting rear lateral stack and was converted to a dining room in the late 17th century. The large inner room has a large gable-end stack backing onto the crosswing and served as the kitchen from the late 17th century onwards.

A crosswing on the right (east) side was newly built in the late 17th century. Behind the inner room/kitchen stack—which projects forward a short distance—is a narrow front room that functioned as a dairy. The room beyond, which is wider and overlaps the inner room, was a bakehouse with a large cob stack to the rear. A service stair alongside the kitchen fireplace provides access to the chambers above. The bakehouse forms the east side of a narrow rear courtyard, while the north side is composed of 17th and 18th century service rooms, including a pump house and a former carriageway entrance from the road.

The earlier development of the main block is difficult to determine. Much 16th and early 17th century fabric clearly survives, but insufficient is exposed for certain interpretation. It appears likely that the house was originally an open hall house, though the roofspace is inaccessible and it is unknown whether it was originally heated by an open hearth fire or whether the hall stack is an original feature. The hall was floored in the early or mid-17th century. Ground floor oak screens suggest that the room off the lower side of the passage was formerly a service room and that the inner room was then a parlour.

The house and service wing are all two storeys. The main block's exterior displays a regular though asymmetrical three-window front. First floor windows are 20th century casements without glazing bars, while ground floor windows are late 17th century large oak-framed 2-light windows with flat-faced mullions containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. The passage front doorway, left of centre, now contains a part-glazed 20th century door. The roof is gable-ended to the left and hipped to the right. The eaves are carried down at the right end over the projecting dairy. The east side of the late 17th century crosswing features more oak-framed, flat-faced mullion casement windows containing rectangular panes of leaded glass, most also having vertical iron glazing bars—these are original. The back of the main block is largely blind but contains some windows blocked in the late 17th century; at least one on the ground floor (the hall) still retains its early 17th century oak frame with ovolo-moulded mullions. The north service room wing faces onto the narrow rear courtyard with an open-fronted central section open to the roof, marking the former carriageway entrance.

The interior contains good features principally in the main block, though little earlier than the late 17th century. The lower end parlour was refurbished in the early 19th century; its fireplace is blocked and no carpentry detail is exposed. The passage is lined on both sides with oak plank-and-muntin screens with chamfered muntins on the hall side. Any stops are hidden by the stairs. Before the stairs were built, both sides apparently had more than one doorway. The hall is lined with small field panelling, possibly early 17th century in date but seemingly relating to the late 17th century refurbishment. The only features here not of late 17th century date are two early 17th century moulded oak crossbeams, their stops hidden by the box cornice. An early 17th century rear window is blocked by a cupboard with shaped shelves and fielded panel doors. The front window, like that in the inner room/kitchen, has fielded panel reveals. The hall fireplace features a timber bolection-moulded chimneypiece with a panel above flanked by panelled pilasters. The oak plank-and-muntin screen at the upper end of the hall is exposed in the inner room/kitchen; it dates to the late 16th-early 17th century, with chamfered muntins bearing diagonal step stops over an oak bench. The two crossbeams here are contemporary, soffit-chamfered with step stops, though the fireplace is blocked. A good late 17th century cupboard with panelled doors occupies the rear wall. The floor here is flagged. Several late 17th century panelled doors are found throughout the house. The roof is inaccessible, but the bases of some presumably 16th century side-pegged jointed crucks are visible on the first floor. The main partitions on this level may contain further plank-and-muntin screens. The first floor also contains late 17th century joinery detail, notably a slightly damaged built-in hanging cupboard (wardrobe) in the kitchen chamber and a small cupboard with panelled door hung on butterfly hinges in the hall chamber. The bakehouse contains a massive stone rubble fireplace with soffit-chamfered oak lintel and an oven. Its axial beam is plain-chamfered and of large scantling, with an A-frame roof truss with lap-jointed collars set onto vertical wall posts. The rear block displays plain carpentry detail with an A-frame roof of pegged lap-jointed collars.

This is an interesting and well-preserved house that has been little modernised since the 19th century, with much remaining unaltered since the late 17th century. The unusually high ceilings on ground and first floors indicate a 16th century house of high status.