Building record LXD 058 - Yew Tree Farm model farm

Yew Tree Farm occupies a moated site in open countryside approximately 1 km west of Laxfield village centre, adjoining the road to Stradbroke on the south-west. The grade II-listed farmhouse is a high-status timber-framed structure of the 16th century with moulded ceilings and twin cross-wings, now clad in 19th century red brick.

The tithe map shows a number of detached farm buildings on both sides of the road but these were demolished in the 1850s or 1860s and replaced by the present brick complex immediately behind the farmhouse. This consists of four ranges of red-brick and pantiled single-storied sheds which form a complete E-shaped ‘model farm’ of unusually modest proportions. The complex included at least 12 separate units, including feed stores and shelter sheds in addition to a stable, cow-house and yards for both horses and cattle. The only detached building was a cartlodge with an integral shed immediately to the west. The majority of sophisticated model farms of this kind survive on gentry estates and are typically larger and more extensive, but this example provides rare evidence of their nature further down the agricultural scale. While the external appearance and proportions of the complex remain broadly intact, it has been considerably altered internally and stripped of almost all original fixtures and fittings. Given the extent of these changes the buildings do not meet the strict criteria for listing in their own right despite their undoubted historic interest (S1).