Farmstead record CAV 052 - Farmstead: Church Farm

Church Farm is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed Os map. The farmstead is laid out in a linear plan with additional detached elements. The farmhouse is detached and set gable end on to the yard. The farmstead sits alongside a public road in a village location. This farmstead survives intact with conversion for residential use. (S1-4)

The barn contains typical 19th C features, such as bolted knee-braces to its tie-beams and diagonal primary braces to its walls. Most of the timbers have been re-used from a late 16th C domestic building. The principle posts and tie-beams of the two eastern bays may remain in situ, and originally formed a 3-bay cross-wing with a single-bay chamber to the E and a 2-bay chamber to the W lit by a tripartite oriel window with calvetto-moulded mullions in its gable. This may survive from a 2nd Tudor house on the site, but probably represents a missing jettied cross-wing of the farmhouse.
It is highly unusual for a barn to contain recognisable domestic building in this way, and so the building is of significant historical interest, despite the extent of recent alterations (S5).
2009: An archaeological monitoring was carried out at Church Farm Barn, Cavendish on the 8th December 2009. Two trenches were examined after they had been mechanically excavated and post-medieval and modern features were observed. These features were likely to relate to the use of the farm house and associated barn (S6).

Recorded as part of the Farmsteads in the Suffolk Countryside Project. This is a purely desk-based study and no site visits were undertaken. These records are not intended to be a definitive assessment of these buildings. Dating reflects their presence at a point in time on historic maps and there is potential for earlier origins to buildings and farmsteads. This project highlights a potential need for a more in depth field study of farmstead to gather more specific age data.