Building record WSN 022 - Farm Buildings at Weston Hall, London Road

Weston Hall lies in open countryside on the western side of the A145 approximately 2 km south of Beccles, and is approached by a dedicated track from the east. The house is listed at grade II* and appears to represent the southern wing of a late-Elizabethan brick mansion that according to the Schedule of Listed Buildings extended further to the north until a fire in 1821. Alfred Suckling, writing in 1846, states that the Hall ‘was in great part demolished about twenty years ago’ when its remains were converted into a farmhouse but makes no mention of a fire. At the time of the tithe survey in 1841 the property formed a large tenanted farm of 141 acres owned by Frederick Barne of Sotterley. The farm buildings to the north are of considerable historic interest and include a timber-framed and weatherboarded structure that is separately listed at grade II as a seven-bay barn dating in part from the 16th century. In fact this structure consists of a four-bay threshing barn of the late-18th or early-19th century which preserves one bay of a mid- to late-16th century predecessor with a largely intact queen-post roof. Despite its fragmentary condition this bay is of special interest as it is broadly contemporary with the Hall and indicates the original barn faced north into a base court through which the site was previously approached (instead of south towards to the house as today). An avenue of substantial trees still survived to the north at the time of the First Edition Ordnance Survey in 1882. The threshing barn is adjoined on the west by a separate 16th century stable of two bays that was extended by an additional bay at the beginning of the 17th century. This building also possessed a queen-post roof, although only the posts of its former gable now survive. There is evidence of at least one window with diamond mullions lighting the hay loft, and the exceptionally large rails of two early-17th century hay racks can be seen at both gables, but the ground-floor ceiling and wall framing is almost completely hidden by modern boarding. Pre-18th century timber-framed stables are notoriously rare, and this building is of national importance – particularly given its association with a contemporary house and barn. The farm complex also includes a good brick stable of the early-19th century with an intact stall partition and evidence of an early change of orientation, together with a number of pantiled brick shelter-sheds that illustrate the advent of Victorian High Farming in the mid-19th century (S1).