Weeke Barton

Details

BRIDFORD SX 88 NW 2/43 Weeke Barton GV II Former farmhouse. Mid C17, possibly a remodelling of an earlier huse, C20 renovations. Whitewashed rendered cob and stone ; slate roof, gabled at ends (formerly thatched) ; end stacks, front lateral stack with tall granite ashlar shaft, axial stack. Plan: Unconventional and difficult to interpret ; an exceptionally long single- depth range, 6 rooms wide, no existing cross or through passage. The 3 left hand rooms and the right hand room are heated and there is a possibility that a detached kitchen at the right end has been linked to a former 3 room and passage house at the left, although this is far from being a satisfactory explanation of the evolution of the building. The 3 left hand rooms each have a rear stair projection, the right hand of the 3 has thick stone crosswalls and no main roof truss. The extreme right hand room is a circa mid C17 kitchen with a massive, well-preserved smoking chamber ; cross beams supporting the ground floor ceiling are consistent in design throughout the range, with the exception of the room with thick crosswalls, as is the jointed cruck roof construction as far as could be seen at the time of survey (1987). An axial passage has been introduced to the rear of the room with stone crosswalls and the extreme right hand room has been converted to a cottage with a long lean-to added at the front which extends across the front of the adjacent room. Exterior: Asymmetrical 8 window front with 7 gabled dormers, the right end dormer altered in the late C20 : gabled porch to left of centre adjacent to front lateral stack (possibly site of front door to former passage ?), long, C20 lean-to at right end with late C20 front door, garage and service room to cottage at right (former C17 kitchen). The rear elevation has the smoking chamber projection at rear right, 2 small stair turrets with catslide roofs and a rear left stair wing. Windows with C20 glazing with timber glazing bars except some late C20 replacements aluminium to the right. Interior: Chamfered step-stopped crossbeams survive throughout the ground floor, except for one room. The 2 left hand rooms have good granite fireplaces with chamfered lintels and jambs. C17 newel stair to rear of left hand room rising to a small stair landing with crank-headed timber doorframes to the 2 left hand rooms on the first floor. The adjacent room has a stopped half-beam against the right hand wall with an unexplained corbel arrangement below the beam; a chamfered arched oak doorframe leads into the axial passage to the rear of the adjacent right hand room which has a C20 fireplace, probably concealing earlier features, and a chamfered axial beam with diagonal stops. The C17 kitchen, at the right end, has a massive open fireplace, almost the complete width of the house, with a C19 bread oven and a massive smoking chamber. The smoking chamber has a granite floor at first floor level (now concealed) with a square hole in the centre. There is a framed partition between the 2 right hand rooms on the first floor. The first floor room second from left has a good granite chimneypiece with the remains of a mid C17 decorated plaster overmantel : on the opposite wall, a splayed slit window with a timber frame appears to have been designed as a squint into an open hall. Roof: Apex not accessible throughout at time of survey but side-pegged jointed cruck trusses appear to survive throughout, the timbers above the left hand room are not smoke-blackened. An unusual large early house with many features of interest and others likely to be concealed behind wall plaster. The apex of the roof over the centre of the range could be of particular interest.

Listing NGR: SX8218087947

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

85564

Legacy System:

LBS

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