Farmstead record BLN 085 - Farmstead: White House Farm

White House Farm is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed Os map. The farmstead is laid out in a regular full plan with the farmhouse detached and set away from the yard. The farmstead sits alongside a public road in an isolated location. This farmstead survives intact with modern sheds to the side.

The site consists of a grade II-listed brick farmhouse dating chiefly from the early-19th century and two groups of mid- to late-19th century red-brick outbuildings: a coach house and stable immediately behind the house and a large complex of uniformly pantiled agricultural buildings approximately 50 m to the west. western complex is a large and sophisticated ‘model’ farm, typical of many built in East Anglia in response to the yard-based system of mixed animal husbandry known today as Victorian High Farming. It extends to an impressive 48 m in length by 30.5 m in width and was built in at least two phases, with the eastern range shown on the tithe survey in 1843 and the northern and western ranges added before the First Edition Ordnance Survey of 1882. The northern range consists of an imposing brick barn with twin threshing floors and the eastern range includes a fine stable with a hay loft and two unequal compartments, each with its own tack room. The tack rooms preserve an impressive array of original wooden harness hooks with evidence for a missing chaff box, but the hay racks, mangers and other fittings have been lost. The eastern range also contains a cart lodge with an integral boarded granary and the western range forms a series of cattle sheds and loose boxes. The slate-roofed coach house is also a fine example of its type, with an integral stable for riding horses lit by demi-lune windows beneath a hay loft or granary (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.