Barnsfield

BUCKFASTLEIGH

SX7366 BARNSFIELD LANE 1011-1/6/42 (North West side) 06/01/83 Barnsfield (Formerly Listed as: SILVER STREET Barnsfield)

GV II

Small gentry house. c1780s with minor alterations of c1900. Local brown slatestone and grey limestone rubble, front elevation slate-hung, rear elevation rendered; natural slate roof; stacks with rendered shafts, cast-iron gutter. Plan: single-depth plan 3 rooms wide with heated rooms to left and right, kitchen rear centre with axial passage in front, stair hall to left of centre. Attached rear block is coal-house. Victorian service wing to rear was demolished C20. EXTERIOR: Sited high above the town and associated with a fine walled garden (qv). 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 4-window front with Edwardian glazed, gabled porch to right of centre with a door on the right return. Moulded eaves cornice. The front is a remarkable example of the slatehanging tradition, common in Ashburton but less common in Buckfastleigh. The large slates are said to be nailed directly into the masonry. 2 slate platbands, one at first-floor level and one over the first-floor windows each have slate drip ledges. 4 first-floor 18-pane late C18 or early C19 hornless sash windows. Similar ground-floor window to left of porch. 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 with spoke glazing bars flanked by Gothick arched panes. Ground-floor window right is an Edwardian French window with glazing bars and a deep overlight. The right return has a 2-light attic casement with glazing bars and a ground-floor one-light casement with a brick arch and diamond leaded panes. The upper storey of the left return is slate-hung. INTERIOR: stick-baluster stair with a ramped mahogany handrail survives from the earlier phase, along with some joinery, including skirting boards. Fireplaces in the principal ground-floor rooms are c1900 - one incorporating glazed turquoise tiles and a mirror-and-shelves overmantel, the other carved oak. Plaster cornices, one moulded one decorated, probably also date from the c1900 phase. Historical note: the house is said to have been built by a late C18 vicar of Buckfastleigh for his sisters.

Listing NGR: SX7338166356