Farmstead record SUT 288 - Field Barn: News Hill Barn

News Hill Barn is a field barn visible on the 1st Ed Os map. The barn sits alongside a private track in an isolated location. This barn survives intact.

News Hill Barn is an isolated field barn lying in open countryside approximately 1.5 m west of Sutton parish church and 500 m east of the hamlet of Methersgate. The present barn is a highly unusual and elegant red-brick structure of circa 1890 on the same site as the barn shown in 1844. It contains a central entrance bay with full-height doors in the usual manner, but was designed with internal floors to both sides for the storage and milling of animal feed. It was accordingly provided with a full complement of horizontal sash windows on both storeys which give the mistaken impression of a domestic house. A contemporary lean-to shed against the northern gable operated as an engine house and the wheels of belt pulleys remain in situ. Many traditional East Anglian barns were converted in much the same way as mechanisation obviated the need for threshing floors in the late-19th century, but the contemporary agricultural depression prohibited new, purpose-built milling barns and examples such as this are rare. It may have been erected as a model for the estate of Sir Cuthbert Quilter of nearby Bawdsey Manor. With the exception of an enclosed yard and single-storied shelter-shed to the rear, as shown on early maps but since demolished, the barn and its interior remain exceptionally intact and offer an important insight into an often overlooked period of the region’s agricultural history (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.