The Post Office

The Post Office is a post office and post master's house dating from the late 16th to early 17th century, with later 19th-century and 20th-century alterations. It is constructed of plastered local stone and flint rubble, with stone rubble and brick stacks, and a thatched roof. Originally a 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing northwest, the unheated service room is located at the northeast end. The hall has an axial kitchen stack backing onto the passage and a newel stair against the front wall. The inner room, which now includes the post office, has a gable-end stack with a winder stair alongside. The building appears to be a single phase construction, including the hall floor.

The exterior has an irregular arrangement of windows: three on the ground floor and two on the first floor. The central ground floor window is an oak 3-light window with ovolo-moulded mullions. The window above it is contemporary, with chamfered oak mullions, although one is now missing, and the others are 20th-century replacements. A 20th-century part-glazed plank door is set within the passage front doorway, left of centre. Another doorway, inserted to the post office/inner room, features a similar door. The roof is half-hipped to the left and gable-ended to the right.

Internally, the passage and service end room were renovated around 1965, obscuring much of the original carpentry detail. A rolled steel joist (RSJ) replaced the original crossbeam in the service end room. The hall newel stairs have solid oak treads. A large Beerstone ashlar fireplace, with a chamfered oak lintel and side oven, is in the hall. The crossbeams in the hall and inner room are chamfered with run-out stops. A full-height close-studded oak-framed crosswall separates the hall and inner room parlour, which also has a Beerstone ashlar fireplace with a chamfered oak lintel. On the first floor, a couple of original oak crank-headed doorframes remain. The roof structure comprises a series of clean side-pegged jointed cruck trusses.

The Post Office is part of a group of attractive listed buildings that form the hamlet of Farway, contributing to its group value.