Details
ST DOMINICK
SX 46 NW
4/204 Halton Barton Farmhouse
21.7.51
II*
Farmhouse, now house. Appears to be of early C17 origin, with remains of further
building to left which may be of earlier date; alterations and additions probably of
mid C17, including the construction of a storied porch and a parlour wing. Later
alterations and additions. Slatestone rubble with granite dressings and some brick
dressings. Slate and asbestos slate roof with ridge tiles, some hand-made crested
ridge tiles remaining on the main range and on the front wing. Rear lateral hall
stack, axial stack to right and rear gable end stack to the parlour wing.
Plan: The original plan may have had a central through passage, with hall/kitchen to
left and unheated lower end room to right. The hall may have been heated by a front
lateral stack; at ground floor, this has been removed and replaced by a window and a
rear lateral stack inserted in its place. If there were an inner room, it may have
been heated from an axial stack backing on to the upper left end of the hall; the
putative inner room appears to have been in a cross wing at the upper left end, with
the side of a stack visible at the upper left end. Probably in the mid C17, a 2-
storey porch was added to the front of the passage, and a parlour wing of 2-room plan
was added to the lower right end; this contains a small room to the front, heated by
a stack to the front, and a large parlour to the rear, heated by a gable end stack.
The entrance to the rear parlour is outside the rear passage;and an addition was
made to give access to this internally. At about the same time, a kitchen addition
was made to the rear of the hall, and the hall was partitioned to form an unheated
dairy at the upper left end; the hall was thus reduced in size, and heated from a
rear lateral stack. A stair has been inserted in the rear of the lower end room. The
rear room in the parlour wing may originally have been intended as a rear kitchen,
with a smoking chamber by the fireplace; the door to this room may be re-used from
elsewhere in the house, as it is set the wrong way round.
Exterior: 2 storeys, asymmetrical front with storied porch, 2 bays to left and one
bay with gable end to right. The porch is 2-storey, gabled, with outer 3-centred
arched doorway in granite with roll-mouldings, leaves in the spandrels and hood mould
with label stops. 3-light 8-pane C19 casement with L hinges and cambered greenstone
arch at first floor. The interior of the porch has slate floor, wooden benches to
sides on shaped brackets; niche with slate cill to right and left. Inner depressed
4-centred arched doorway with deep chamfer and pyramid stops; door with battens,
studs and strap hinges. The upper end to left has 2-light C20 casement to left with
chamfered brick head and iron stanchions (lighting the dairy) and C19 3-light
casement with L hinges and cambered brick head (lighting the hall). First floor left
a 2-light 6-pane casement with L hinges and to right a 3-light 6-pane casement with L
hinges. The lower end to right has ground floor 2-light casement with L hinges and
cambered greenstone arch; gable end to right has 2-light C20 casement at ground and
first floor. At the right side is the parlour wing; this has ground floor 12-pane
sash with sidelights and first floor right 3-light 8-pane casement with L hinges and
timber lintel; re-used granite label stops in the masonry. At the left end, a C20
window at ground floor to right, formerly a door opening from the hall to the inner
room. Wall remaining from former building, of 2 storeys, with window opening at
ground and first floor to front. The remains are on a different axis from the main
range, with granite window openings remaining, and a former fireplace to rear with
cambered chamfered granite lintel; the kitchen range at the rear of the hall was
formerly of 2 storeys. At the rear, the wing to left has blind end wall. On the inner
side is a ground floor granite 2-light casement with deeply-concave mouldings; at
first floor a 2-light hollow-chamfered granite casement with 8-pane lights and HL
hinges. The rear of the main range has first floor 4-pane light, rear lateral hall
stack with rebuilt rubble shaft; at the rear of the passage is a single storey lean-
to with C20 door and 4-pane light to left and 2-light C20 casement to right. Larger
kitchen addition to right, also single storey, with C20 3-light casement and large
rear lateral stack with cornice. To right, external stone steps, possibly originally
leading to a left over the kitchen, and possibly also originally extending further
into a rear range.
Interior: The through passage has slate floor, small recess in the wall to right. The
passage rear doorway has granite surround, as at the front, pintles remaining from
former door. Step up to the hall to left, with wooden panelled screen partition with
scratch mouldings, possibly of early C17, early C18 2-panelled door with HL hinges.
The hall has a wide front window bay with splayed reveals, probably the site of the
original fireplace. The rear lateral fireplace has flat granite chamfered lintel
without stops, granite jambs and cloam oven to rear right; this was probably inserted
when the room was reduced in size. Straight joint to the right of the rear fireplace.
The upper end room was formerly part of the hall, converted as a dairy, and the end
window has surround formerly for a door with jambs of full length and depressed 4-
centred granite arch, chamfered. The thickness of the wall is stepped, and this
doorway may possibly have been originally a front doorway to the earlier range on a
different axis. The lower end room to the right of the passage is now entered from
the parlour wing; the straight stair may have been inserted in the site of the
original doorway from the passage. This room is unheated, and has deep splayed
reveals to the front window; slate floor and slate shelves. At the rear of the
passage, the lean-to has a slate floor, and a 4-centred arched granite doorway to the
rear parlour wing, chamfered with pyramid stops; the mouldings are on the inner side
of the doorway. The rear room in the wing has 3 chamfered beams with run-out stops;
re-sited fireplace in the rear gable end, in granite, with swept vestigial ogee and
roundels and roll-mouldings; this was originally part of the remains of the early
building at the upper left end. The windows are hollow-chamfered on the inside, and
the rear room has a slate floor. The front room is a small parlour, much remodelled.
The stair has an ovolo-moulded beam over, and there is a small wooden doorframe which
may have led to an attic flight. On first floor, the chamber over the hall has a
fireplace to the front in granite, chamfered, with pyramid stops, matching the
mouldings on the doorways in the passage and using the flue from the original hall
fireplace. The ceiling is slightly coved at the front. The hall chamber is also
partitioned, as below. The lower end room at first floor has a small fireplace from
the axial stack, in granite, chamfered with run-out stops; this room leads to the
chamber over the porch, which is unheated. The front window in the lower end chamber
has timber lintel, chamfered with run-out stops.
Roof: The roof construction is continuous over the main range and the parlour wing.
The principal rafters are not chamfered, and are halved and pegged at the apex.
Cambered collars, dovetailed and pegged; threaded purlins. There is no access to the
roof over the porch. In the rear of the parlour wing, the walls in the roof space are
plastered and the roof space is partitioned.
Listing NGR: SX4100665624
