Farmstead record HIG 019 - Farmstead: Hall Farm

Hall Farm is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed Os map. The farmstead is laid out in a regular E-plan with the farmhouse detached and set away from the yard. The farmstead sits alongside a public road in a hamlet location. This farmstead survives intact with modern sheds on the side. (S2-5)

The farm is first shown on an enclosure map of 1823. This map depicts a scattered group of buildings on the approximate site of the present farm yards, but none appear to have survived a major redevelopment of the mid-19th century. The existing farm buildings form an E-shaped complex of animal yards immediately north of a red-brick former farmhouse which ostensibly dates from the mid-19th century and is not listed. This complex consists of nine individual structures of which the earliest is a five-bay timber-framed and slate barn in its north-western corner. This barn contains a rear aisle with a front (northern) porch of clunch (i.e. chalk-lump) and was probably built to serve the newly enclosed land in circa 1830. It was much altered and partly rebuilt when the rest of the surviving structures were added in circa 1870 to accommodate the mixed animal husbandry which replaced intensive cereal production in Suffolk after the collapse of the grain price.

The new buildings included a second five-bay barn aligned at right-angles to the first, a two-storied granary, a single-storied stable and a series of open-sided shelter sheds, which include a cattle shed and a cart shed. Despite some later alterations the resulting complex remains largely intact and is accordingly of some historic interest as a relatively complete example of typical High Victorian form. Although most of its individual structures were undoubtedly built within a few years of each other they exhibit an unusual variety of wall and roofing materials that suggests a degree of piecemeal evolution rather than a unified plan. The two barns and the southern granary are good examples of their kind, and the exceptionally late arch-braces of the eastern barn remain impressive, but nothing on the site is of sufficient age or rarity to merit listing. The chief interest of the complex lies in the regional character of its building materials, which include substantial areas of clunch and flintwork with brick dressings in the distinctive manner of the Suffolk Breckland (S1).

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.