Description

DUNSFORD SX 88 NW 6/22 Sowton Barton

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GV II*

Large house. Circa C16 core, 2 phases of C17 remodelling and addition. Whitewashed rendered cob on stone rubble footings, some granite to gable end wall of rear wing. Thatched roof, half-hipped at left end, gabled at right end; end stacks, 2 granite axial stacks, gable end stack to rear wing. The medieval house extends from the left-hand axial stack to approximately 1 room in from the right-hand wall, the lower end to the left. There is evidence in the roofspace that it was a 3-room house with a central 2-bay hall divided from single bay outer rooms by low screens. The outer bays were ceiled over first, possibly at different dates, the hall remaining open until a later date in the C17 when the hall stack was inserted which may have preceded the insertion of the hall ceiling. The wing at the rear of the hall, which was probably a kitchen wing, may be coeval with the ceiling over the hall. No through passage exists now, but there may have been a passage behind the axial stack at the lower end of the hall. There is some evidence of a former newel stair in the rear wing. The right-hand end of the house appears to be a later addition: the left-hand lower end room may have been an outbuilding or storage block and is separately roofed. In the C20 a flat-roofed single-storey addition has been built in the angle between the rear wing and the left-hand end of the house. 2 storeys. Long asymetrical 6-window front, the eaves thatch eyebrowed over the first floor windows. C20 porch with hipped thatched roof on front at right, C20 glazed door in C20 doorway to the left of the axial hall stack. Small pane probably C19 1- 2- and 3-light casements of 6 and 8 panes per light except for the window to the left of the C20 glazed door which is a C17 4-light timber mullioned window with deep chamfered mullions. The rear wing has a similar first floor 3-light mullioned window on the left return and a very small 2-light timber mullioned window with unmoulded round-headed lights which may have been a stair light to a stair leading to the first floor of the left-hand end of the house. A ground floor window in the kitchen wing preserves its stanchions and saddle bars and is probably also C17. Interior A fine 4-bay medieval roof and considerable survival of C16 and C17 features. The medieval roof consists of jointed cruck trusses with cambered collars mortised into the principals, threaded purlins and a diagonally-set ridge. the rafters, thatch and battens are all heavily blackened. Closed trusses flank the 2- bay hall, the left-hand closed truss infill is not sooted on the left-hand side, although there does appear to be some sooting on the right-hand side of the right- hand truss suggesting the possibility of 2 open hearths. The C17 hall has a large fireplace with C20 grate: the C17 timber lintel, is moulded and still visible, the chamfered jambs are large single pieces of granite. The hall has a chamfered cross beam and a chamfered half-beam to the front wall and a rather odd arrangement of a chamfered step stopped ceiling beam about 1 metre in front of the stack which extends only half-way across the depth of the room. A fine oak plank and muntin screen with wide planks and chamfered muntins at the inner end of-the hall has the remains of what appears to be a Caernarvon arched doorway. To the left of the hall a chamfered cross beam is truncated at a point that may indicate the left-hand of the former passage. On the rear wall of this room, a partition wall, is an outstanding large moulded timber doorway with a rounded head, probably of the C17 and, judging from its relation to a jointed cruck, not in situ. Sowton Barton was recorded 1244 (Hoskins). It is a fine example of a high status medieval house with a rich history of evolution and fine external and internal features.

Listing NGR: SX8336688845

External Links

• Wikidata Q17535497

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Recommended Books

• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)