Building record BAC 041 - Bacton Manor Barn, Bacton

Listed at grade II* Bacton Manor is one of the best preserved early-Georgian country houses in East Anglia, dating from circa 1730 and lying at the western edge of Bacton village approximately 300 m from St Mary’s church. The building was the home of Baron Pretyman when he served as High Sheriff of Suffolk in 1741 and is depicted in a painting of the same period with an unusual detached building of uncertain purpose immediately to the east. This painting was published in ‘Suffolk Houses’ by Eric Sandon in 1977. The site of the unusual building is now occupied by a substantial timber-framed and weatherboarded barn dating from the second quarter of the 19th century. By the time of the Bacton tithe survey in 1839 the property had became a tenanted farm of 105 acres occupied by a certain Edward Cooper, and Sandon notes that during Cooper’s ‘ownership’ the high-status 18th century outbuildings were demolished to leave only the main house standing. This is consistent with the present barn which appears to be shown on the tithe map and forms a five-bay structure with a central entrance to the south and a gabled rear porch to the north. Its fabric is typical of its period with a tall plinth of red brick, bolted knee-braces, primary wall bracing and evidence of re-used timber. The building represents a traditional East Anglian threshing barn that remains largely original in its appearance and layout despite alterations of the late-19th century that involved the replacement of its doors and weatherboarding together – probably – with the addition of its present covering of slate. A single-storied brick shed was added to its southern elevation at much the same time, along with a post-and-rail lean-to in the western angle of its porch. The lean-to retains a louvered window, wide entrance and floor drain suggesting it was built as a bullock shed. A second lean-to on the opposite side of the porch and an open-sided shed against the barn’s eastern gable are 20th century corrugated iron additions of no significance. Despite the almost complete rebuilding of its roof structure in recent years the barn illustrates the nature of 19th century agriculture in the area and is of local interest to the history of this important site, but is not of sufficient age or rarity to meet the English Heritage criteria for listing in its own right. Evidence of the 18th century outbuilding in the same position may be uncovered during any future groundworks (S1).