Farmstead record ASG 019 - Farmstead: Grange Farm

Grange Farm. 17th century farmstead and 19th century farmhouse with converted buildings. Regular courtyard L-shaped plan formed by working agricultural buildings with additional detached elements. The farmhouse is set away from the yard. Partial loss (less than 50%) of the traditional farm buildings. Located within a loose farmhouse cluster (S1-6)

Grange Farm lies in open countryside approximately 1.3 km east of Great Ashfield parish church and 300 m south of the hamlet of Daisy Green. The property has been known by its present name since the 19th century but it is uncertain whether it occupies the site of a true monastic grange. The present farmhouse is a grade II-listed timber-framed and rendered structure which appears to date only from the early-19th century despite its thatched roof.

The building adjoining the road to the west of the site is a substantial flint structure with red-brick dressings and distinctive semi-circular windows that was designed as a stable with a hay loft in circa 1840. Its layout was highly sophisticated for a farm of this scale and suggests its owner may have engaged in horse breeding. The hay loft was converted into a granary in the 1890s by replacing both its floor and roof, but the building's external appearance remains largely original. The granary contains grafitti which records national and local events from the 1890's to 1960's. The adjacent five-bay threshing barn is a good timber-framed and weatherboarded structure of the early-17th century which has lost its roof but otherwise remains largely intact. Its weatherboarding is still partly decorated with red ochre in the fashion of the 18th and early-19th centuries (S7).

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.