Way Barton

Farmhouse. Built in the early 18th century, with modernisation in the mid-to-late 19th century, and built on the site of an earlier barton. It is constructed of plastered stone rubble and cob, possibly with some brick, featuring stone rubble stacks topped with 19th and 20th-century brick, and a slate roof, formerly thatched. The plan is a 4-room farmhouse facing north-east. The south-east end has a parlour with a gable-end stack. Adjacent is an entrance hall with an axial stack backing onto the dining room, which has a rear lateral stack. The north-west end contains a kitchen, set back slightly from the front, with a gable-end stack. An axial passage runs to the rear of the entrance hall and parlour, leading to a rear block which primarily houses the main stair but also includes a former buttery and dairy. A service stair rises from the rear of the kitchen.

The exterior is a regular, though not symmetrical, 3:1-window front featuring 19th-century 12-pane sashes, with the central bay (dining room) windows incorporated into tripartite sashes. The front doorway is to the left of centre and has a 20th-century part-glazed panelled door and overlight. The roof is gable-ended. A medieval carved stone is set into the front wall, approximately 1.5 metres above ground level and 1 metre from the left end. It depicts three human heads in a pyramid shape, with a male head at the apex and two female heads wearing wimples below. The stone is believed to date from the late 13th or early 14th century and its provenance is unknown.

Inside, there is limited exposed carpentry detail, although heavy scantling axial joists are visible in the parlour. Stripping of plaster reveals brick-nogged timber-framed walls at the parlour end of the house. The dining room fireplace is also exposed, featuring a large stone rubble construction with a brick segmental arch above and a brick relieving arch. Other early 18th-century joinery and details are present throughout the house. The entrance hall has a moulded plaster cornice. The open well stair has a closed string, square newel posts and fat stick balusters. A good cupboard on the stair has fielded panel doors with nowy-headed upper panels. The first floor includes fielded 2-panel doors and similar cupboard doors. The roof is said to comprise tie-beam trusses with pegged collars, likely dating from the early 18th century, though it was not available for inspection. A 19th-century cream oven is found in the dining room. Way Barton was historically the home of the La Way family in the early 13th century, acquired by the Pollard family in 1242, and by Lewis Wellington in 1640.