Hookway Farmhouse

Hookway Farmhouse

Hookway Farmhouse is a substantial farmhouse with late medieval origins, substantially remodelled in the late 16th or early 17th century, with further internal re-arrangement in the late 17th or early 18th century. The building underwent late 20th-century re-roofing and refenestration. It is constructed of stone rubble, colourwashed and rendered to the front elevation, with an asbestos slate roof (formerly thatched) gabled at the ends. Two projecting rear lateral stacks with stone and brick shafts are positioned at the rear, with a further stack at the left end.

Although the roof structure is a late 20th-century replacement, the original timbers were smoke-blackened, indicating that the original plan was a late medieval open hall house. The present plan is four rooms wide with an entrance in the middle facing a straight stair and narrow rear service rooms in single-storey lean-tos. Following the flooring of the medieval house, the plan appears to have been reorganised into a traditional two or three room arrangement with a through passage (lower end to the right), with the hall and lower end kitchen heated by the rear lateral stacks. The left end of the house (the inner room) is more difficult to date as a thick cross wall separates it from the hall; it may be a rebuilding or extension of the late 17th century. In the late 17th or early 18th century the house was refurbished and a wide stair inserted into the former passage. The right end room, adjoining the lower end room, may be an addition of the late 17th or early 18th-century phase.

The rear service rooms are of particular interest to the plan, as the left-hand lean-to at least appears to be integral with the original building. These rear service rooms enclose the bases of the rear lateral stacks and were formerly used as dairies.

The building is two storeys. The front elevation is asymmetrical with six windows and a front door positioned to the left of centre with a porch canopy on moulded brackets. An additional doorway is located at the extreme right of the front elevation. The fenestration throughout is 20th-century, set within enlarged embrasures.

Interior

The late 16th or early 17th-century hall, to the left of the front door, retains three steeply angled moulded cross beams of the same period (one partly cut away at the soffit) with some late repair. The open fireplace features a fine bolection-moulded timber surround. The rear wall of the hall is only a partition wall with a doorway through to the rear left dairy; the cross beams rest upon the partition wall. Doorways in the upper end wall of the hall give access to the inner room and to a flight of straight stairs against the rear wall of the inner room.

The principal stair, facing the front door, has a late 17th or early 18th-century balustrade on the first floor with contemporary finial and bobbin-turned balusters.

The lower end room contains a plastered-over cross beam and an open fireplace with stone rubble jambs. An ovolo-moulded step-stopped 17th-century lintel conceals a 19th-century timber lintel, and two 19th-century bread ovens are present.

The first-floor room to the left has a late 17th or early 18th-century bolection-moulded chimneypiece with a 19th-century grate. An axial passage has been inserted on the first floor, dividing another first-floor fireplace from the room it originally heated. This fireplace is blocked, with the chimneypiece in the possession of the owner.

Hookway is a substantial farmhouse with good interior features; other features may be concealed behind modern plaster. According to Margaret C.S. Cruwys, Hookway is first documented in the 15th century. Documents relating to the house from the late 18th and early 19th centuries are in the possession of the owner.