Description

COLEBROOKE PENSTONE SS 70 SE 3/145 Penstone Barton Farmhouse 26.8.65

GV II*

Large farmhouse. Probably C16 with major C17, early C18 and C19 improvements and extensions. Plastered cob on rubble footings; stone rubble and cob stacks topped with C19 and C20 brick; thatch roof. Courtyard plan. Main block facing south-east has a 3-room-and-through-passage plan with inner room at right (north-eastern) end. Inner room has projecting end stack and hall and service end rooms have rear lateral stacks. Axial stack over upper end of passage serves first floor chambers only. C19 main stair now in passage and early C18 stair in a turret projecting to rear of upper end of hall. Rear service blocks at right angles at each end and C17 cider store with former accommodation above encloses rear of courtyard. Inner room end near block has end cob stack. 2 storeys. Asymetrical but regular 6-window front. Front passage door left of centre has C19 4-panel door with panelled reveals and soffit-panelled flat hood on shaped brackets (now with corrugated iron roof). Secondary C20 door to inner room right of centre behind contemporary monopitch roofed porch. Hall and inner room have 16-pane sashes. Service room and first floor chambers have C19 casements with glazing bars. Exposed cob stack projecting from inner room. Service end rear block has late C19 and C20 casements mostly with glazing bars and roof is hipped to rear. The rear storage block has a first floor C17 oak 3-light window with chamfered mullions and roof of this block is gable-ended. Interior of main block shows work of several periods. All main crosswalls are cob. Passage includes C19 geometric stair with open string, mahogany handrail, turned newels and hockey stick balusters. In service end room fireplace is blocked but early C17 crossbeam is soffit-chamfered with late step stops and same finish given contemporary oak doorframe to passage. In hall the ceiling has most unusual ornamental plasterwork, a wedding commemoration dated 1737. Relatively crudely executed with narrow plain hand-run ribs, a large heart: motif with a stylistic floral surround contains 5 letters and the date, all done to be read properly from a mirror. The fireplace is blocked. At the upper end an early C17 oak doorframe with ovolo-moulded and scroll-stopped surround leads to the inner room. The stair turret to rear contains a good early C18 (possibly 1737) dogleg stair with crudely closed string and turned balusters. Cupboard under stairs has contemporary 2-panel door. Roof is inaccessible but small section of truss feet exposed over hall could be C16 arch brace or slender C18 principal. Many old features are probably hidden behind later plaster. House has had surprisingly little modernisation since C19.

Listing NGR: SS7764400233

External Links

• Wikidata Q17530973

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: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)