Haye Farmhouse

Haye Farmhouse is a small farmhouse with adjoining shippon (animal shelter) and barn, dating to the late medieval period and remodelled in the 16th century. A shippon likely originated in the 17th century, and the barn was probably built in the 18th century. The house and shippon are constructed of stone rubble and plastered cob, with thatched roofs. The barn has a slate roof. A left-gable end stack is present, along with an axial stone stack at the junction between the house and shippon.

Originally a small, two-room medieval house with a two-bay open hall to the right and an unheated inner room, the hall was ceiled over and enlarged in the 16th century with a gabled projection featuring a stack at its right end. A 17th-century shippon was then added, creating a three-room and passage plan. A stack was added to the inner room in 1792, evidenced by a dated fireplace lintel. This was likely contemporaneous with the addition of two small rear service rooms under a lean-to roof, and the threshing barn at the lower end of the shippon.

The front facade is asymmetrical, featuring a two-window arrangement. The hall projection has a gable, and the former passage entrance is to the right of the hall stack, which leads into the shippon with its lower roofline. Fenestration consists of sympathetic 20th-century three-light casements with three panes per light; one window is present in the hall projection. A small rectangular window on the right return of the projection, featuring an ancient wooden frame and deep internal splay, likely served as a squint looking out on the approach to the farmstead. The shippon features a ventilation slit with a timber lintel, and the barn has a central entrance under a timber lintel.

Inside, the smoke-blackened collar rafter truss of the medieval hall remains visible beneath a late 20th-century roof. The principal rafter to the front of the hall was removed during the 16th-century hall projection construction, while the rear principal rafter is a raised cruck, both heavily sooted. The 16th-century hall is very complete, featuring a large fireplace with granite and stone rubble jambs, a roughly chamfered lintel and a bread oven. The hall ceiling displays exposed joists to the rear and two deeply chamfered 16th-century ceiling beams with step scroll stops in the projection. A straight stair runs against the rear wall of the hall behind a timber partition. The inner room has roughly chamfered exposed joists and a large fireplace with granite and stone rubble jambs, the lintel dated 1792. Plank and batten doors with strap hinges are likely from the late 18th century. The building represents an unusually complete example of a typically small west Devon house.