Description

HORWOOD
SS 52 NW
4/50 East Barton, including front
garden walls and gatepiers
GV II
Barton, including front garden walls and gatepiers. Some late medieval and early
C17 fabric to the east wing, the main range rebuilt in late C17. White painted
brick, Flemish bond, some stone rubble to east wing. Slate roofs with gable ends,
Roman tiles to rear of east wing with C19 carved bargeboard at its front gable end.
Axial brick stack to main range, and 2 lateral brick stacks with tall shafts to
west wing, that to rear is particularly impressive with offsets, Original plan
uncertain because of C17 rebuilding. The main central range was probably the hall
and lower end of the medieval house, and the right-hand (east) end a cross-wing at
the higher end which was possibly a parlour, but this has been partially demolished
behind so that it is now only attached at the right-hand corner. The main central
range was rebuilt in late C17 retaining its approximate original plan; it has a
large right-hand room which was probably the position of the hall, a central stair
hall, probably in the passage position, and the large left-hand room was the
kitchen with an end stack, now the massive lateral stack on the left-hand side.
Probably at the same time in the C17 a smaller third room was added to the front of
the left-hand (west) lower room. The services were later accommodated in the C19
in a wing at the left of the lower (west end). The overall plan is U-shaped on
three sides of a front courtyard with the service wing extending to the left. 2
storeys and attic storey. 5 bays including projecting gable end of west wing.
Brick plat-band. Main range on each floor has 12-paned sashes to each side of
blind windows to right and doorways to left, the upper doorway with no external
access has door of 9 panes with 2-panelled base, that to ground floor has 6-
panelled door, the upper 4 panels glazed. Canopy to porch supported on tapering
octagonal timber posts. Courtyard inner face of west wing has two 12-paned sashes
above 2 doorways, plank door to left, that to right with door of 9 panes over 2-
panelled base, the plat-band carried over the relieving arches as a continuous
hoodmould. 12-paned sashes to each side with slightly cambered heads. Inner face
of east wing has pentice slate roof with plank door towards left end.
Interior: fine dog-leg staircase to main range rising to attic storey with thick
turned balusters, moulded handrail and square newels. 3-panelled doors off
landings to principal rooms. Long chamfered lintel to west wing fireplace. Roof
structure largely intact with 6 C17 raised cruck trusses to the west wing with 2
tiers of threaded purlins but no ridge purlin and morticed and tenoned straight
collar. 2 further trusses to main range, plastered over but apparently of a
similar type with curved feet but no collars. The structure is of an impressively
wide span and of a late date for this type of construction. The east wing has a
single raised cruck truss surviving with archbracing to the morticed and tenoned
collar, forming a closed partition to the north gable end of the wing with a large
fragment of early C17 decorative plasterwork on its inner face forming a
geometrical ribbed pattern of triple interlaced lozenges. On the east wall are
some late medieval blind quatrefoil panels reset here in the late C20 alterations,
and the front courtyard walls of stone rubble with centrally-placed ivy-clad
gatepiers of square section contain some fragments of medieval stonework.
The house was a principal seat of the Pollard family and is of considerable
interest for its unusually early brickwork in this region.

Listing NGR: SS5129527649

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26401435

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey