West Way Farmhouse

West Way Farmhouse

A farmhouse dating from circa the early 17th century, possibly incorporating a remodelled and extended late medieval building, with a 1970s rear right addition. The house is constructed of colourwashed rendered stone rubble, with the front wall said to be cob faced with stone. The roof is covered with asbestos slate (formerly thatched) and is gabled at the ends. Three rendered chimney shafts project from the building: a cob stack at the projecting left end, an axial cob stack, and a right end stack.

The house is two storeys high and presents an asymmetrical five-window front. The plan consists of a single-depth main range four rooms wide. The first room from the left is unheated. The right hand end appears to have been arranged as a two or three room suite with a through passage, with the lower end originally unheated. A thick cross wall at the higher end of the hall suggests there may not have been an inner room. The right hand end of the house may be of late medieval origin, though roof timbers were replaced in the 1930s and this remains unproven. The surviving ground floor carpentry details are of circa early 17th century date. The two left hand rooms consist of a 17th century kitchen to the left and an adjoining unheated service room, dated to circa late 17th century, with less fine carpentry details indicating a late 17th century service extension. A single-storey rear left lean-to with corrugated iron roof and a single storey flat-roofed rear right addition of the 1970s extend the building.

The exterior features two 20th century brick buttresses on the front elevation. The front door is a 20th century insertion to the former through passage to the right of centre, with an additional 20th century front door into the left hand room with a long 20th century glazed porch with a lean-to roof. The first floor window to the left is a 20th century four-light casement with glazing bars; the others are 19th or 20th century two-light casements with six panes per light. The ground floor window to the left is a 20th century three-light casement with glazing bars, and there is a 20th century window to the right of the left hand door in an enlarged embrasure. The two ground floor windows flanking the through passage door have timber mullions chamfered on the inner faces. The four-light hall window has internal stanchions.

The interior contains fine 17th century carpentry and joinery, particularly at the right end of the range. The hall features an ovolo-moulded axial beam and scratch-moulded joists which have been repaired where they abut the rear wall. Unusually, the complete 17th century exposed first floor floorboards survive. A trimmer beam in the front right corner of the hall ceiling may indicate former stair or ladder access to the first floor. The passage has thin partition walls at the higher and lower ends, with a 1930s stair inserted within it. The lower end partition is in part a plank and muntin oak screen with chamfered muntins, some with step stops, visible in the lower end room. This room was originally unheated and contains a small open fireplace with stone rubble jambs and a chamfered timber lintel, probably of late 17th or early 18th century date. The lower end room has exposed chamfered cross beams and joists.

The two left hand rooms have more modest interior details. The left hand room has a chamfered axial beam with scroll stops and an open fireplace with a replaced lintel and semi-circular cob and stone bread oven. The unheated room has a chamfered axial beam with run-out stops. In the early 20th century this room served as a harness room and the left end room as a kitchen for farm labourers.

This is a traditional farmhouse of the region with some fine interior carpentry.