Brightley Barton

Details

DOLTON SS 51 SW 4/38 Brightley Barton GV II Farmhouse. Circa late C15 with early Cl7 rebuilding and addition and further C19 addition. Rendered cob and rubble walls. Gable-ended slate roof. Rubble front lateral stack with brick shaft; brick gable-end stack to inside rear wing and projectng rubble lateral stack with brick shaft; brick gable-end stack to inside rear wing and projecting rubble lateral stack with brick shaft to side of outer rear wing. Plan: originally 3-room-and-through-passage plan, lower end to left. Almost certain it was built as an open hall house with central hearth to hall. The full height solid wall between hall and lower room makes it unclear however whether it was also open to the roof over the lower end as there is some doubt whether the lower end truss is smoke-blackened. In the early C17 the hall and higher end were virtually rebuilt with a lateral stack and projecting window bay to the hall and a parlour wing with side lateral stack added to the rear of the inner room. In the late C18 a staircase was inserted into the C17 wing and in the C19 a parallel kitchen wing was added at the rear of the hall. The lower end appears to have been down-graded to agricultural status, probably in the C19 and has remained single storey although the lower passage partition has been removed and its rear door blocked. Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 2-window front, 3 to ground floor. The left- hand one, a large C20 canted bay window, is in the much lower left-hand section. Otherwise late C19 4-pane sashes and C20 3 and 2-light casements - the left-hand windows are in the projecting front wall of the hall which also incorporate the lateral stack. C20 leanto porch at right-hand end of lower section with late C19 or early C20 panelled and part-glazed door behind. Parallel gabled wings at rear to left and centre. Left gable end of lower range has small wooden framed opening in its apex. Interior: contains some surprisingly good quality features. Both the hall and the rear wing have high quality ceilings of moulded axial and cornice beams. The hall has an open fireplace with chamfered wooden lintel and pyramid stops. Early C18 fielded 2-panel door to inner room which has chamfered axial beams. It also has a section of good quality early C17 panelling with a carved frieze of scroll and rosette design. Also in the rear wing is a late C18 chinoiserie staircase. Roof: rear wing has cruck trusses with morticed collar and threaded purlins which is not smoke-blackened. There is no access to the roof over the hall and inner room or evidence of early trusses. Over the single storey lower end however is an original massive cruck truss with face-pegged joint very low down the post. The ridge no longer survives but was square set clasped between the tops of the principals and resting on a small yoke. There is a light morticed collar. The truss is not obviously smoke-blackened but being of such early construction may have been cleaned off, and a wooden framed slit at the apex of the lower gable-end wall is suggestive of a vent to let the smoke escape. The external appearance of this house gives no clue to its interesting and very good quality internal features and its early origins; the development of plan is also interesting in the way that the higher end was greatly upgraded while the lower end remained single storey and declined to non-domestic status.

Listing NGR: SS5496011488

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

90829

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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