Building record SXT 025 - Outbuildings at Church Farm, Church Road

Outbuildings including a rare early-19th century timber-framed and weatherboarded neat-house known today as the ‘field barn’. It still occupies an isolation position at the edge of a paddock approximately 80 m west of the main farm complex and immediately north of All Saints’ churchyard – just as depicted in 1839. Neat-houses (or cow-houses) were often built in pastures during the 17th and 18th centuries but most were demolished and relocated to new integrated yards adjoining threshing barns as part of the mid-19th century agricultural revolution known today as Victorian High Farming. Field neat-houses such as this are now genuinely scarce and of considerable historic interest. This example consists chiefly of re-used timber, with a 17th century ceiling of low height incorporating hay drops at both gables and a loft with inverted knee-braces above. Despite the replacement of its weatherboarding as part of a late-20th century refurbishment it remains largely intact. A mid-19th century shelter-shed aligned at right-angles alongside has been raised in height and much altered but still provides historic context for its neighbour. The third building is a single storied red-brick and pantiled structure which adjoins the pond behind the house. This formed a typical Victorian stable and coach house of circa 1870 with an integral tack room at one end, but while its exterior remains unaltered its internal partitions have been entirely removed and its roof structure substantially rebuilt. A good brick floor survives in the stable and tack room, with a secondary ‘mucking out’ hatch to the rear which now opens into an unusual 20th century wrought iron dog cage (S1).