MEM15190 - Ashway Farmstead, Dulverton (Monument)

The farmstead is shown on the Tithe Map for Dulverton and labelled "Ashway". At this time, it included a group of buildings surrounding the central farmhouse (MSO9323), with a pond to the south and, beyond this, an L shaped orchard. To the west was a field in a generally oval shape. The farm buildings included a curved range in the northwestern corner at c. SS 8682 3126, which may have been a linhay, and several other buildings in an informal scatter, some of which are still extant (part of MEM15191, MEM15193 and three further buildings at SS 8689 3126, SS 8688 3123 and SS 8690 3124). The remaining buildings, to the west of the farmhouse and including the curved possible linhay, had been removed by the time the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map was surveyed and the range of farm buildings that is still extant had been constructed (MEM15192, MEM15194-7). A further linear range had also been constructed directly to the north of the farmhouse. By this time, the orchard to the south had been reduced in size to be housed in a rectangular enclosure but the pond and oval enclosure were still extant; these were removed at some point after the 2nd Edition map was surveyed, in the latter's case, to make way for a large modern agricultural building. [1-4] The farmstead was visited in January 1997. Only the farmhouse (MSO9323) and extant linhay (MEM15191) were discussed. [5] The buildings are built of local stone rubble bonded in lime mortar. The steading is built in a small south-facing combe above the water meadows in the valley of the River Barle. The valley side rises steeply to open moorland at about 300 metres, but Ashway manages to find the least steep part of the hillside right on the springline.The drive approaches the farmstead from the east. At the farm there is a gateway (widened for farm machinery in the 20th century) to a north-south driveway descending the hillslope between the house and the main quadrangular yard. The yard is now largely covered in concrete but some cobbles remain in the northwest corner. There was a slurry pond just southeast of the main yard. Every spring the slurry was released to flood the meadows below. [6]