Farmstead record WGW 043 - Farmstead: Halycon House, Church Street (LA) HAA

Halycon House, Worlingworth. 16th century farmstead and 15th century rectory. Dispersed cluster plan formed by working agricultural buildings. The farmhouse is set away from the yard. Only the farmhouse survives. Located within a village (S1-6).

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.

Maps of circa 1606 and 1837 show a number of outbuildings that served an extensive glebe farm which in 1837 amounted to some 30 acres managed in hand by the rector. Chief among these was a barn that flanked the entrance drive and was mentioned in the English Heritage listing description of 1955. This barn was unfortunately demolished before 1980, leaving only two buildings of those shown in 1837: a two-storied brick and timber-framed granary and a small brick shed, both with pantiled roofs reflecting that of the house. The shed adjoined an enclosed yard to the south of the barn and at just 5.5 feet its eaves were exceptionally low, suggesting it was designed as a rare kennel for sporting dogs. Regrettably any proof of this was lost during an extensive rebuilding in recent years which left only its northern gable and rear western wall intact. The granary is relatively well preserved and of considerable historic character, retaining the original boarded interior of its grain floor which is reached by an external brick stair. The lower storey was probably a coach house but the recent addition of a shallow lean-to ‘porch’ and the rebuilding of its rear wall in cement block-work have removed any evidence of this. Despite these depredations by previous owners, both buildings complement the approach to the house and offer valuable historic context to the site as the sole survivors of the glebe farm. They may occupy the position of the medieval farm buildings depicted in 1606 and could overlie archaeological evidence of the origins of this potentially ancient site (S7).