Building record MNL 679 - Outbuilding at Bargate Farm

Bargate Farm lies on the northern bank of the navigable River Lark, approximately 3.25 km west of Mildenhall town centre and 150 m east of Jude's Ferry. The site is locally believed to have operated in the past as an inland port on the fen edge. A messuage called 'Barrgate' is mentioned in a document of 1631, when it belonged to the Mildenhall Estate owned by Sir Roger North, and was apparently let jointly to a yeoman farmer and a local clothier. The outbuilding is an early-17th century timber-framed structure of exceptional size and form which contains 10 bays and extends by 27.5m (90 feet) from the contemporary farmhouse to which it is attached. It is understood to lie on an artificial chalk raft. The building was floored throughout, with an unusually low ceiling and an undivided upper storey reached by at least one external stair in its eastern façade. An almost identical structure lay on the opposite, southern side of the house, but was converted into a barn during the 18th century. Buildings of this kind are not normally found on agricultural sites, and appear to be commercial warehouses associated with the landing stage. A broad inlet which reached the farmhouse is shown on a map of 1812. Despite extensive alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries, the building remains of national importance given its rarity as an early warehouse and its significance to the economic history of the wider fenland landscape (S1).