Barnsfield

Barnsfield is a small gentry house dating from the 1780s, with minor alterations made around 1900. It is constructed of local brown slatestone and grey limestone rubble, with the front elevation slate-hung and the rear elevation rendered. The roof is natural slate, with stacks featuring rendered shafts and cast-iron gutters. The house originally had a single-depth plan consisting of three rooms, with heated rooms to the left and right, a kitchen at the rear centre, and an axial passage to the front. A stair hall was located to the left of the centre. A rear block, originally used as a coal-house, was attached. A Victorian service wing to the rear was demolished in the 20th century.

The house is situated above the town and is associated with a walled garden. The asymmetrical front elevation has four windows. A distinctive Edwardian glazed porch, with a door on its return, is located to the right of the centre. The front is notable for its slate-hanging, a tradition common in Ashburton but less so in Buckfastleigh; the large slates are said to be nailed directly to the masonry. Two slate platbands are present, one at first-floor level and one over the first-floor windows, each with slate drip ledges. Four first-floor windows are late 18th or early 19th century 18-pane hornless sash windows. A similar sash window is located on the ground floor to the left of the porch. The left-hand ground-floor window is also a 16-pane sash, but the upper light is slightly canted inwards at the top with a central semi-circle featuring spoke glazing bars, flanked by Gothick arched panes. A ground-floor French window, with glazing bars and a deep overlight, is located to the right. The right return has a 2-light attic casement with glazing bars and a ground-floor one-light casement under a brick arch with diamond leaded panes. The upper storey of the left return is slate-hung.

The interior retains a stick-baluster stair with a ramped mahogany handrail from the original construction, along with some joinery, including skirting boards. Fireplaces in the principal ground-floor rooms are from around 1900; one incorporates glazed turquoise tiles and a mirror-and-shelves overmantel, while the other is carved oak. Plaster cornices, one moulded and decorated, likely also date from the 1900 phase. According to local tradition, the house was built in the late 18th century by a vicar of Buckfastleigh for his sisters.