Building record MDS 208 - Roper's Farm, Church Road

Roper’s Farm formerly adjoined open countryside on the southern edge of Mendlesham village but is now surrounded by modern housing. It lies on the western side of Church Road approximately 100 m south of St Mary’s church. At the time of the parish tithe survey in 1839 it was a modest tenanted holding of 36 acres, most of which lay 150 m to the south and was linked to the barn by a narrow strip of pasture.

The barn is a timber-framed and weatherboarded structure with a corrugated iron roof that was thatched until the late-1940s, as shown in a photograph belonging to the present owner’s family. It consists of a small three-bay threshing barn of the late-16th or early-17th century with a fourth bay to the west and a gabled rear porch that were added in the 18th or early-19thcentury. The three-bay structure retains its original steeply-pitched roof of clasped-purlins with curved wind-braces, although its western gable was removed when the extension was built. The site underwent further refurbishment in the 1860s or 1870s when a complex of clay-lump animal sheds and yards was added to the barn and the framing of both gables was largely renewed. The barn’s northern entrance was both heightened and widened at much the same time and a new door post of this period bears the boldly carved names of the two individuals who may have been responsible for the work. Of the mid-19th century complex only a single-storied slate-roofed stable and shelter-shed adjoining the road survived further alterations in the mid-20th century, albeit stripped of its fixtures and fittings and converted into a milking parlour, dairy and vehicle shed.

Small barns of circa 1600 are rare survivals, particularly retaining their original roofs and in semi-urban urban locations such as this. The building’s historic interest is enhanced by the presence of its 18th century extension and porch which reflect the increase in local cereal farming at that period in response to agricultural improvement and the rising price of grain. Despite its undoubted historic value however the structure may not meet the strict English Heritage criteria for listing given the extent to which its walls were removed or partly rebuilt in the 18th and 19th centuries. As part of a High Victorian cattle yard complex the clay-lump building illustrates another important change in local farming practice and is also of historicand visual significance (S1).