Way Farmhouse

Details

SS 90 NW THORVERTON 5/116 Way Farmhouse - II Farmhouse. Circa late C16/early C17; mid/late C17 rear wing. Colourwashed rendered cob and stone; thatched roof with plain ridge, gabled at ends of main range and ends of rear wing and rear projection; cob and stone axial stack with rendered shaft to left of centre, right end stack with brick shaft; end stack with brick shaft to rear left wing. Plan and Development The main range, facing west, is the higher end and passage of a 3 room and through or cross passage house ; the lower end room to the left, has been thoroughly rebuilt and absorbed into an adjoining barn, leaving the passage at the left end of the house. The hall, to the right of the passage, is heated by the axial stack backing on to the passage and has a newel stair external to the rear wall and contained within the rear wing. The inner room, at the right end, is heated from the right end stack. The rear left service wing is a subsequent C17 addition, presumably replacing the old lower end. It consists of kitchen at the east end and a small unheated service room to the west (adjoining the main range) with an axial passage behind it forming a continuation of the through passage of the main range. The service room is probably an early C18 re-arrangement of what was originally a 1 room plan kitchen wing. Above the kitchen there is large C17 heated chamber. A short 2- storey rear projection at right angles to the inner room is a puzzling feature of the plan. There is external access only to the ground floor room; the small first floor room is entered from the room over the inner room. The projection is an addition to the main range, but of C17 date. It forms an extremely narrow and rather awkward yard with the service wing. Exterior 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 2 window west elevation, the eaves thatch eyebrowed over the first floor windows. Plank front door to passage at left; 3-light C18 or C19 casement lighting hall, 6 panes per light, ground floor window, right, a C20 2- light casement, 2 panes per light. First floor window left, probably C18, a 3-light casement with timber stanchions and square leaded panes ; first floor window right a 2-light casement, 2 panes per light. A change in plane on the front wall suggests that the right end (inner) room may have been rebuilt. The south elevation of the service wing has an approximately central doorway and various casement windows. Immediately to the right of the door is a 2-light C17 timber ovolo-moulded mullioned window (formerly larger) and, at a higher level to the right, a 3-light C16 or C17 timber mullioned window with deeply chamfered mullions. The rear (north) elevation of the service wing has a chamfered doorframe leading into the axial passage behind the dairy. Interior Numerous features of interest. The hall in the main range has a large open fireplace with volcanic trap chamfered ashlar jambs, a blocked bread oven and a chamfered oak lintel. An axial beam and 2 half beams have cyma reversa mouldings and step stops; the main axial beam is rather awkwardly mortised into the head beam of a plank and muntin screen at the higher end of the hall and appears to be secondary to it. The screen has muntins chamfered and stopped on the hall side only, plain to the inner room. The inner room has a deeply chamfered plastered over cross beam and an open fireplace with moulded volcanic trap jambs with cushion stops. The lintel replaces a damaged moulded lintel. The kitchen has 2 massive scroll-stopped crossbeams (1 partly in the unheated dairy) and a massive blocked fireplace, the scroll-stopped lintel and jambs survive. On either side of the fireplace are 2 recesses: the left hand one may have been a smoking chamber, the right hand recess a modern stair; this does not appear to replace an earlier stair and the function of this recess, lit by one of the mullioned windows and entered through a chamfered doorframe, is puzzling. The newel stair which rises from the hall has solid timber baulk treads and a polygonal oak newel post. A small lobby at the top of the stairs has C17 chamfered stopped doorways leading into the 2 first floor rooms. Roof The main range roof trusses are side-pegged jointed crucks with a diagonally-set ridge, the collars mortised into the principal rafters. One truss and the remnants oil a second continue in the barn adjoining at the left end where one cruck foot is visible resting on the stone rubble fottings of the front wall. There is a closed truss over the hall/inner room partition. The trusses over the service wing are probably late C17 with straight principals and collars halved and pegged on to the rafters. The truss in the small rear right projection also appears to be C17 but with queen struts between collar and principals. None of the roof trusses is smoke- blackened. An attractive envolved farmhouse with a wealth of interesting interior features.

Listing NGR: SS9367505935

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

438798

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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