| Summary: | 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 house was converted into a floored cross-passage house of a type common across the region.
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. |
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