Way is a historic estate in the parish of St Giles in the Wood, Devon. It is situated about 2 miles (3.2 km) north-east of the village of St Giles in the Wood and about 4 miles (6.4 km) north-east of the town of Great Torrington. It was described by Hoskins (1959) as "the fons et origo[1] of the mighty tribe of Pollard" and had been acquired by them from the de la Way family at some time before 1242.[2]
One of the earliest members descended from this family to reach national prominence was Sir Lewis Pollard (c. 1465-1540), Justice of the Common Pleas from 1514 to 1526, of Grilstone, Bishop's Nympton, described by Thomas Fuller (1608-1661) in his Worthies of England as one of several Devonshire men "inundated with a genius to study law".
The former mansion of the Pollards at Way is now represented by the farmhouse known as Way Barton. Reset into the front wall of the house is a stone sculpture dated about 1300 showing the faces of two ladies wearing wimples and above them the smaller face of a man.[3] In 1309 Robert Pollard was granted by the Bishop of Exeter licence to build an oratory at Weye, of which no trace remains in the present house.[4]
- ^ Latin: "Fount/spring/source and origin"
- ^ Hoskins, W.G., A New Survey of England: Devon, London, 1959 (first published 1954), p.470
- ^ Pevsner, Nikolaus & Cherry, Bridget, The Buildings of England: Devon, London, 2004, p.707
- ^ Coulter, James, Ancient Chapels of North Devon, 1993, p.64