Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 3 April 2023 to update the name and address and to reformat the text to current standards

SY 19 NE
3/109

OFFWELL
Barton Hall House

(Formerly listed as Offwell Barton, OFFWELL)

22.2.55

GV
II
House. C16 and C17 origins, extensively rebuilt circa 1810 by the Reverend Edward Copleston, Bishop of Llandaff and Dean of St. Pauls. Local stone and flint rubble laid to rough courses with Beerstone ashlar quoins and detail; stone rubble stacks with octagonal Beerstone chimneyshafts; slate roof, thatch to rear service block.

Plan: the house has an L-plan. The main block faces east and it has a four room and cross-passage plan. At the left (south) end is the service end kitchen with a gable end stack. Between this kitchen and the passage is a narrow unheated dairy/buttery. The hall has an axial stack backing onto the passage and there is an unheated inner room at the right (north) end. A one room plan parlour wing projects forward at right angles in front of the inner room and it has a gable end stack. To rear of the kitchen is a single storey service wing projecting at right angles.

The main house retains the layout and some features of a C16 house with C17 improvements. However, it is essentially a shell. Not enough remains to determine the early development of the house in detail. It was probably some form of open hall house. The old house was extensively rebuilt in circa 1810 in Tudor Gothic style. It is two storeys.

Exterior: the main block has a regular but not symmetrical three window front of circa 1810. Beerstone windows with hollow-chamfered mullions, round headed lights sunken spandrels and hoodmoulds. They contain rectangular panes of leaded glass. The passage front doorway is right of centre and it contains a part-glazed four-panel door behind a Beerstone ashlar porch. The sides of the porch have Tudor arch panels.The outer Tudor arch has sunken spandrels and a hoodmould. The gable has shaped kneelers and coping with a cusped frieze below and a panelled shaft at the apex with a ball finial. Towards the left end there is a service doorway to the kitchen; this has an elliptical arch with hoodmould and contains a plank door. The roof is gable ended with shaped kneelers and coping.

Interior: some early features survive particularly in the hall. Here there is a large Beerstone ashlar fireplace with a low Tudor arched oak lintel and chamfered surround. At the upper end is the remains of an oak plank-and-muntin screen. The muntins are chamfered with cut diagonal stops high enough to accommodate a bench below. The parlour crossbeam is plastered over but is thought to be C17 and the contemporary fireplace here is blocked. The kitchen fireplace is probably C17; it has a neatly chamfered oak lintel but is lined with C19 brick and includes a large C19 oven and ash pit. All the main block ground floor rooms have flagged floors. The rest of the detail and carpentry dates from the circa 1810 rebuild.

Listing NGR: SY1947099546

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26618062

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

• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House