Description

SAMPFORD COURTENAY

1540/0/10014 The Barton
23-MAR-04

GV II
Farmhouse. Circa C15; altered C16; remodelled and extended C17 and extended again circa mid C19. Cob earlier range and stone rubble mid C19 extension with stone dressings. Slate hipped roof; asbestos tile half-hipped roofs over rear wings. End stacks with brick shafts and truncated axial stack.
PLAN: The rear wing is a circa C15 house open to the roof from end-to-end and heated from an open hearth fire. In the C16 floors were inserted to create chambers and a axial stack was built in the hall, backing onto the cross-passage, while the hall remained open to the roof. In the C17 the hall was floored by a framed ceiling, the front [E] wall of the hall was rebuilt as a projecting hall bay and a 1-room plan parlour wing with a chamber above and an end stack was built behind [W] of the hall. In about the mid C19 the lower [S] end of the house was replaced by a 2-storey, 3-bay stone south-facing range with a central entrance/stairhall and two rooms, relegating the old house to a rear [N] service wing and forming an overall T-shaped plan. The stone outshut in the NW angle of the original range and the C17 west wing is also a Victorian addition.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and cellar, 3-bay south front, symmetrical except for a wooden canted bay window on the left ground floor; C19 12-pane sashes in stone cambered arch openings with stone cills; central doorway with C19 panelled and glazed door and fanlight with radiating glazing bars and depressed 2-centred arch; cellar door on lower ground level on east side. The rendered cob rear wing has 2-light casement windows with glazing bars; its east front is 3-window range with projecting central hall bay, the left and ground floor right windows replaced. Stone rubble outshut with red brick dressings and slate lean-to roof in north west angle.
INTERIOR: The Victorian south range has an open-well staircase with intact balustrade, joinery intact including panelled doors and with some chimneypieces and servants' bells. The Medieval rear wing: the hall has large fireplace in axial stack backing onto cross-passage with monolithic stone jambs, massive chamfered timber bressumer with run-out stops and Victorian cooking range; C17 framed ceiling with deeply-chamfered intersecting beams, C17 benches on shaped bracket feet on high side of hall and continuing into bay and three small wall cupboards; hall/inner room chamfered door frame with cyma stops. Large inner [N] room with roughly chamfered axial beams without stops. Parlour in west wing has chamfered cross-beams with notched run-out stops and blocked fireplace. C19 axial partitions in hall and inner room. C17 chamfered hall chamber/ inner room chamber door frame with plank door with cover moulds. Medieval roof structure smoke-blackened from end-to-end survives, but is truncated at south end in mid C19 when lower end of house was replaced; face-pegged jointed cruck-truss on hall side of stack with chamfered high collar, diagonally trenched ridgepiece, tenoned purlins, many common-rafters remain including hip structure at north end, all smoke-blackened from open-hearth fire; but the battens and smoke-blackened thatch was removed in the late C20 and replaced by a new roof constructed over the old roof. A cob wall was built in place of the truss between the hall and inner room. C17 roof structure over west wing with truss crossed at apex and with lapped collar. The roof of the mid C19 south range has king-post trusses.
An interesting example of a traditional multi-phase Devon farmhouse of Medieval origin, remodelled and extended in the C16 and C17, extended again in the mid C19 and with interesting features from all the main periods and little altered since the C19.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26670028

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

• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Shredded Chef: 120 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)