Farmstead record BAW 208 - Farmstead: High House Farm

2016: High House Farm lies on the western side of Ferry Road at the southern end of Bawdsey village. The substantial farmhouse is a grade II-listed 17th century building with a fine three storied southern wing of the late-18th century that was probably added by the Sheppard family who owned the property in 1843 when it was a large tenanted holding of 228 acres. The stable building is a small flint-rubble structure with red-brick dressing adjoining a yard immediately behind the farmhouse. Its lower storey contained a domestic stable for riding and coach horses, along with a narrow tack room and a coach house, while the upper storey was designed as a granary. The latter was initially divided into two compartments reached by external stairs adjoining both gables. The building is clearly shown on the 1843 tithe map and dates from c.1820, retaining an intact roof structure of staggered butt-purlins that is typical of the ‘Napoleonic’ period. The western wall consisted of boarding on its upper storey with flint-rubble beneath, but has largely been removed where it adjoins with a 20th century extension. The stable stains evidence of two boarded stalls with a 19th century paint scheme of grey wainscot and an original brick floor in its passage, while wooden harness hooks of unusually delicate proportions survive in the tack room. The ceiling joists were initially exposed in the stable and tack room, with plasterwork confined to the coach house, but a new plaster ceiling was provided throughout when a series of boarded grain bins was installed later in the 19th century. These alterations illustrate the mid-19th agricultural revolution known as Victorian High Farming, which involved the storage of loose grain in bins rather than in sacks. A small lean-to extension was added to the northern gable in the 19th century, but in most respects the original structure is unusually well preserved (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.

2023: The ‘barns’ at High House Farm form a series of single-storied red-brick and pantiled sheds grouped around a rectangular complex of walled animal yards. They replaced a double threshing barn shown on the Ordnance of 1902 and were built in circa 1910 by the 3,000 acre estate of Sir Cuthbert Quilter centred upon his newly built mansion at Bawdsey Hall. At the time of the parish tithe survey in 1843 High House was a tenanted farm of 228 acres owned by the Sheppard family of High House in Campsea Ashe, from whom it was purchased by Sir Cuthbert in 1883. The buildings represent an unusually late example of a single-phase ‘model farm’ of the type often commissioned by gentry estates in the mid-19th century. The various compartments include what appears to have been a stable entered from a walled yard to the rear along with a narrow tack room, a cart lodge, several storage sheds and a shelter-shed serving the stable yard. A detached structure that lacked windows in the south-western corner of the complex was probably a grain store in the absence of a traditional barn or possibly a cow shed. Although much altered and stripped of their original fixtures and fittings when converted for cattle in the mid-20th century, the buildings retain their uniform external appearance and illustrate the sophisticated nature of model farms during the Edwardian period. They accordingly remain of considerable historic interest, particularly given their association with the Bawdsey Hall estate.