Description

SS 90 NW THORVERTON
5/116 Way Farmhouse
-
II
Farmhouse. Circa late C16/early C17; mid/late C17 rear wing. Colourwashed rendered
cob and stone; thatched roof with plain ridge, gabled at ends of main range and ends
of rear wing and rear projection; cob and stone axial stack with rendered shaft to
left of centre, right end stack with brick shaft; end stack with brick shaft to rear
left wing.
Plan and Development The main range, facing west, is the higher end and passage of a
3 room and through or cross passage house ; the lower end room to the left, has been
thoroughly rebuilt and absorbed into an adjoining barn, leaving the passage at the
left end of the house. The hall, to the right of the passage, is heated by the axial
stack backing on to the passage and has a newel stair external to the rear wall and
contained within the rear wing. The inner room, at the right end, is heated from the
right end stack. The rear left service wing is a subsequent C17 addition, presumably
replacing the old lower end. It consists of kitchen at the east end and a small
unheated service room to the west (adjoining the main range) with an axial passage
behind it forming a continuation of the through passage of the main range. The
service room is probably an early C18 re-arrangement of what was originally a 1 room
plan kitchen wing. Above the kitchen there is large C17 heated chamber. A short 2-
storey rear projection at right angles to the inner room is a puzzling feature of the
plan. There is external access only to the ground floor room; the small first
floor room is entered from the room over the inner room. The projection is an
addition to the main range, but of C17 date. It forms an extremely narrow and rather
awkward yard with the service wing.
Exterior 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 2 window west elevation, the eaves thatch eyebrowed
over the first floor windows. Plank front door to passage at left; 3-light C18 or
C19 casement lighting hall, 6 panes per light, ground floor window, right, a C20 2-
light casement, 2 panes per light. First floor window left, probably C18, a 3-light
casement with timber stanchions and square leaded panes ; first floor window right a
2-light casement, 2 panes per light. A change in plane on the front wall suggests
that the right end (inner) room may have been rebuilt.
The south elevation of the service wing has an approximately central doorway and
various casement windows. Immediately to the right of the door is a 2-light C17
timber ovolo-moulded mullioned window (formerly larger) and, at a higher level to the
right, a 3-light C16 or C17 timber mullioned window with deeply chamfered mullions.
The rear (north) elevation of the service wing has a chamfered doorframe leading into
the axial passage behind the dairy.
Interior Numerous features of interest. The hall in the main range has a large open
fireplace with volcanic trap chamfered ashlar jambs, a blocked bread oven and a
chamfered oak lintel. An axial beam and 2 half beams have cyma reversa mouldings and
step stops; the main axial beam is rather awkwardly mortised into the head beam of a
plank and muntin screen at the higher end of the hall and appears to be secondary to
it. The screen has muntins chamfered and stopped on the hall side only, plain to the
inner room. The inner room has a deeply chamfered plastered over cross beam and an
open fireplace with moulded volcanic trap jambs with cushion stops. The lintel
replaces a damaged moulded lintel. The kitchen has 2 massive scroll-stopped
crossbeams (1 partly in the unheated dairy) and a massive blocked fireplace, the
scroll-stopped lintel and jambs survive. On either side of the fireplace are 2
recesses: the left hand one may have been a smoking chamber, the right hand recess a
modern stair; this does not appear to replace an earlier stair and the function of
this recess, lit by one of the mullioned windows and entered through a chamfered
doorframe, is puzzling.
The newel stair which rises from the hall has solid timber baulk treads and a
polygonal oak newel post. A small lobby at the top of the stairs has C17 chamfered
stopped doorways leading into the 2 first floor rooms.
Roof The main range roof trusses are side-pegged jointed crucks with a diagonally-set
ridge, the collars mortised into the principal rafters. One truss and the remnants
oil a second continue in the barn adjoining at the left end where one cruck foot is
visible resting on the stone rubble fottings of the front wall. There is a closed
truss over the hall/inner room partition. The trusses over the service wing are
probably late C17 with straight principals and collars halved and pegged on to the
rafters. The truss in the small rear right projection also appears to be C17 but
with queen struts between collar and principals. None of the roof trusses is smoke-
blackened.
An attractive envolved farmhouse with a wealth of interesting interior features.

Listing NGR: SS9367505935

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26552019

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)