Barrington Court

Barrington Court is a manor house dating back to approximately 1514, originally commissioned for Henry Daubeney and possibly completed around 1558 for William Clifton. The house suffered extensive damage and its interior was virtually gutted around 1825, before being restored between 1921 and 1925 by Forbes and Tate for A.A. Lyle, who had donated the property to the National Trust in 1908.

The building is constructed from ham stone with stone-tiled roofs and is arranged on an E-plan with its principal elevation facing south-east. The main range contains a hall and buttery, separated by a screens passage. Long projecting wings extend outwards, incorporating staircases within square, corner turrets. The plan is slightly offset, with the screens passage and entrances not centrally located, and some variation in floor levels throughout. A long gallery extends to the attic. The interior was significantly replanned and refitted during the 1921-25 restoration, in a style combining native Gothic with French Renaissance features.

The south-east elevation is of two storeys and an attic, displaying a 1:1:1:2:1 bay arrangement, featuring 2, 3, 4, and 5-light stone-mullioned windows. Most ground and first-floor windows are transomed, with 4-centred heads to the lights, containing square-paned leaded glass. Diagonal buttresses, rising to twisted finials, are present on the outer wings and porch, with scalework caps and crocketed finials on attic gables and stair-turret finials. The skyline is further accentuated by tall, twisted chimneys with crenellated caps, appearing singly or in pairs.

The four-storeyed central porch features a 3-light window in the gable face, a moulded 4-centred arch outer door opening and an inner door opening with a panelled door. Returns are executed in a similar elaborate style, with projecting stacks. A rear entrance, created by Forbes and Tate, is arranged with a 2:1:3:2:1 bay arrangement, incorporating 3 and 4-light stone mullioned windows with six transomed, and flanking projecting chimney breasts. To the left is a garderobe flue. Steps of stone lead to this rear entrance.

Original features within the property are limited to the studding of the screens gallery in the hall. Two early 17th-century overmantels remain on the first floor; one depicts the Judgment of Solomon and the other is a painted freestone design with flanking columns and strapwork ornament. The east wing includes a kitchen with a passive stone lintel. Virtually all other interior fittings were procured by A.A. Lyle and incorporated by Forbes and Tate, alongside staircases designed by them. These reused fittings span the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, including panelling, staircases, panelled ceilings, doors and chimneypieces.

Adjacent to the main house is a wing built by Forbes and Tate integrating a 17th/18th-century stable block, along with further service buildings.