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Summary

Town Barton farmhouse, late 16th-early 17th century.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1105656: TOWN BARTON

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX49NE/27
• Old Listed Building Ref (II)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FARMHOUSE (XVI to XXI - 1501 AD to 2009 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1880s, Ordnance Survey (Cartographic). SDV848.

Farmstead shown but not named on OS 25" (1880s) with a squarish farmhouse surrounded by other buildings.

Department of Environment, 1987, Beaworthy, 5 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV20230.

Town Barton. Farmhouse, probably late C16/early C17 although all early internal features are concealed; extended and altered in C19. Rendered stone rubble and cob walls. Gable ended slate roof, scantle slates to righthand side, slightly projecting rubble stack to left gable end, large rendered rubble axial stack and C19 axial brick stack. Originally a 3 room and through passage plan, lower end to the right. Later C19 outshuts added at rear of lefthand end. In the C19 original features were covered up and the hall subdivided with a staircase inserted at the rear. Two storeys. Asymmetrical 4 window front of circa late C19/early C20 casements which are 3 light except for first floor window left of centre which is one light. Shallow hall projection. Late C19/early C20 gabled porch of brick. C19 outbuilding extension at righthand end and outshut at rear. No early features visible but beams and open fireplaces are likely to be concealed. The feet of principal rafters are not visible in first floor rooms so it is unlikely that the roof trusses are early.

Exeter Archaeology, 2004, Summary Archaeological Assessment of the Proposed Site of the new Primary School, Halwill Junction, 3 (Report - Assessment). SDV1968.

Morris, B. + Wapshott, E., 2019, Town Barton, Beaworthy, West Devon: Historic Building Recording (Report - Survey). SDV363800.

South West Archaeology Ltd. (SWARCH) was commissioned by Piper Architecture (the Agent) on behalf of a private client to carry out historic building recording for the Grade II Listed Town Barton, Beaworthy, Devon. This work was undertaken ahead of alteration and restoration works.


The farmhouse at Town Barton – or Drew’s Tenement as it was known in the early 19th century has a long and complex structural history. Built as a relatively high-status hall house in c.1450, it probably belonged to a prosperous yeoman farmer. In the early 17th century the house was converted into a floored cross-passage house of a type common across the region. This is likely to be connected to the prosperity arising from the enclosure of the common fields and the creation of compact several holdings. This prosperity continued into the 18th century and into the 19th century, when the farmhouse was at the centre of a substantial farm of 300-425a under the Smale family. Later in the 19th century the house was comprehensively renovated, with a new roof, windows, doors and internal fixtures. Again, this may reflect sale (the Smales disappear from the Census after 1871) and can be related to the loss of many cottages in the village during the period 1840-1880 and the expansion of the remaining farms. The house appears to have remained largely unchanged during the 20th century but has suffered from profound neglect in the later 20th and 21st century.

The current state of the building reflects perhaps 40 years of neglect, and the extensive loss of historic fabric is deeply regrettable. However, it does provide an opportunity to explore in detail the development of the building, and in this way better reveal its significance. In addition, the general absence of traditional heritage constraints (i.e. extensive surviving physical fabric, fixtures and fittings) within the collapsed eastern half of the building represents an opportunity to put back many of the features we may reasonably infer were, or had been, present.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8320 - Historic Building Recording: Town Barton, Beaworthy, West Devon (Ref: 190620)

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