British Listed Buildings

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Listing Text

DOLTON
SS 51 SW
4/38 Brightley Barton
GV II
Farmhouse. Circa late C15 with early Cl7 rebuilding and addition and further C19
addition. Rendered cob and rubble walls. Gable-ended slate roof. Rubble front
lateral stack with brick shaft; brick gable-end stack to inside rear wing and
projectng rubble lateral stack with brick shaft; brick gable-end stack to inside
rear wing and projecting rubble lateral stack with brick shaft to side of outer rear
wing.
Plan: originally 3-room-and-through-passage plan, lower end to left. Almost
certain it was built as an open hall house with central hearth to hall. The
full height solid wall between hall and lower room makes it unclear however whether
it was also open to the roof over the lower end as there is some doubt whether the
lower end truss is smoke-blackened. In the early C17 the hall and higher end were
virtually rebuilt with a lateral stack and projecting window bay to the hall and a
parlour wing with side lateral stack added to the rear of the inner room. In the
late C18 a staircase was inserted into the C17 wing and in the C19 a parallel
kitchen wing was added at the rear of the hall. The lower end appears to have been
down-graded to agricultural status, probably in the C19 and has remained single
storey although the lower passage partition has been removed and its rear door
blocked.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 2-window front, 3 to ground floor. The left-
hand one, a large C20 canted bay window, is in the much lower left-hand section.
Otherwise late C19 4-pane sashes and C20 3 and 2-light casements - the left-hand
windows are in the projecting front wall of the hall which also incorporate the
lateral stack. C20 leanto porch at right-hand end of lower section with late C19 or
early C20 panelled and part-glazed door behind. Parallel gabled wings at rear to
left and centre. Left gable end of lower range has small wooden framed opening in
its apex.
Interior: contains some surprisingly good quality features. Both the hall and the
rear wing have high quality ceilings of moulded axial and cornice beams. The hall
has an open fireplace with chamfered wooden lintel and pyramid stops. Early C18
fielded 2-panel door to inner room which has chamfered axial beams. It also has a
section of good quality early C17 panelling with a carved frieze of scroll and
rosette design. Also in the rear wing is a late C18 chinoiserie staircase.
Roof: rear wing has cruck trusses with morticed collar and threaded purlins which
is not smoke-blackened. There is no access to the roof over the hall and inner room
or evidence of early trusses. Over the single storey lower end however is an
original massive cruck truss with face-pegged joint very low down the post. The
ridge no longer survives but was square set clasped between the tops of the
principals and resting on a small yoke. There is a light morticed collar. The
truss is not obviously smoke-blackened but being of such early construction may have
been cleaned off, and a wooden framed slit at the apex of the lower gable-end wall
is suggestive of a vent to let the smoke escape.
The external appearance of this house gives no clue to its interesting and very good
quality internal features and its early origins; the development of plan is also
interesting in the way that the higher end was greatly upgraded while the lower end
remained single storey and declined to non-domestic status.


Listing NGR: SS5496011488

Source: English Heritage

Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence: PSI Click-use licence number C2008002006.