Barton Including Adjoining Hothouse to Rear Courtyarad and Remains of Chapel Umberleigh House

Details

ATHERINGTON SS 52 SE 5/10 Umberleigh House and Barton - including adjoining hothouses to 25.2.65 rear courtyard and remains of Chapel GV I

Large house, occupied as 2 dwellings with some fabric of the C13 chapel surviving in attached outhouses to rear courtyard. Substantial late C15 fabric to main range concealed by late C18/early C19 remodelling, with a large C17 wing added to rear. Painted rendered stone rubble. Slate roof with gable ends, asbestos slates to rear. Ridge and gable end brick stacks to south side, left end, similar rubble stacks with drips at right end. Axial rubble stack towards gable end of rear wing. The medieval ground floor plan has been largely obscured by the Georgian remodelling of the house which created 2 large rooms to the left and 3 rooms to right of the wide entrance hall, but the original C15 structure consisted of a massive 10-bay, possibly open hall house though always heated by a stack. In the C17 a large wing was added to the rear right end creating an overall L-shaped plan, with the covered cart entrance and former chapel incorporated into piggeries completing the 3-sided rear courtyard plan. 2 storeys with garrets to the rear wing. Symmetrical 5-bay classical centre range with 2 additional bays at left end and canted 2 storey bay with conical roof at right end, both ends breaking forward slightly. Central range has 5 window range of hornless 12-paned sashes over 2 similar sashes to each side of Tuscan porch with engaged pilasters flanking 6-panelled door with fanlight. Similar fenestration to 2 left end bays with C20 door. Canted bay at right end is blind. Rear wing has irregular fenestration with mostly 20-paned hornless sashes. The back wall of the outhouses to rear originally formed the south wall of a chapel, and contains fragments of the chamfered window jambs and a complete infilled C13 doorway, with engaged shafts with lipped capitals from which the moulded pointed arch springs. Interior: main range has late C18/early C19 geometrical staircase to entrance hall with wreathed handrail and stick balusters. C19 Adam style chimneypiece and ceiling centrepiece to room to right, and moulded cornices to this room and room to left of entrance hall which has a marble chimneypiece. A small stone bearing Champernowne crest has been reset in the rear wall of the entrance hall. The majority of upper floor rooms in the east wing contain late C17 moulded plaster cornices, with a late C17 staircase up to the garrets with moulded handrail and splat balusters, and a C18 balustrade with turned balusters to the head of the staircase leading from the main range into the rear wing. The most remarkable survival is the roof structure. Over the main range from the left end it consists of 11 arch-braced trusses with short curved feet, 3 tiers of threaded purlins and ridge purlin, with morticed and tenoned straight collars. The soffits of the arch bracing have hollow flanking roll mouldings, with roll mouldings to both top and bottom arrises of the inner faces of the purlins, and to the underside of the ridge purlin. The 2 left end bays retain their full 2 tiers of curved windbracing to the north side with all but 2 of the bays retaining a single tier of windbraces, which have identical mouldings to the purlins. Each end truss is moulded on its inner face. Beyond the right end truss is a closed truss with short curved feet with mortices for studs, then 5 more trusses with short curved feet, the second truss being closed with a solid stone partition. The rear wing has four C17 trusses with high lap-jointed collars and halvings for raking struts to the tie beams. The house was formerly a seat of the Bassett family. The exceedingly high quality of the roof carpentry places it in the very top category of medieval survivals in North Devon.

Listing NGR: SS5936424597

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

96871

Legacy System:

LBS

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