Farmstead record ESO 034 - Farmstead: Oak Hill Farm

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Summary

Oak Hill Farm is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed OS map. The farmstead is laid out in a regular U-plan with additional detached elements. The farmhouse is detached and set away from the yard. The farmstead sits alongside a public road in a loose farmstead cluster. There has been a partial loss of working buildings with modern sheds to the side.

Location

Grid reference Centred TM 2404 6467 (118m by 110m)
Map sheet TM26SW
Civil Parish EARL SOHAM, SUFFOLK COASTAL, SUFFOLK

Map

Type and Period (7)

Full Description

Oak Hill Farm is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed OS map. The farmstead is laid out in a regular U-plan with additional detached elements. The farmhouse is detached and set away from the yard. The farmstead sits alongside a public road in a loose farmstead cluster. There has been a partial loss of working buildings with modern sheds to the side.

The timber-framed, weatherboarded and pantiled barn to the east of the farmhouse is currently surrounded and filled by late-20th century silos and agricultural machinery, including a large grain dryer, but despite initial appearances is a well-preserved traditional threshing barn of the early-19th century. The five-bay structure contained a threshing floor slightly to the south of its centre, with bolted knee-braces and other carpentry features that are typical of the second quarter of the 19th century. The northern gable was obscured by silos at the time of inspection, but the rest of its wall fabric survives largely intact with evidence of red-ochre pigment to the original weatherboarding of its western elevation. The use of distorted timber lends the framing a considerable degree of visual character. All eight knee-braces remain in situ, although one tie-beam was partly removed to accommodate the grain dryer and the nailed collars of the clasped-purlin roof have been cut by an aerial gantry. The two upper sections of the barn’s entrance doors may be original, but a lean-to rear porch shown in 1840 has been demolished and the threshing floor replaced by concrete. A number of new cattle yards and sheds were added to the western side of the barn during the mid-19th century, as shown on the Ordnance Survey of 1885, but of these only one single-storied red-brick shed now remains, along with a much rebuilt shelter-shed of little historic value (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.

Sources/Archives (4)

  • --- Unpublished document: Campbell, G., and McSorley, G. 2019. SCCAS: Farmsteads in the Suffolk Countryside Project.
  • --- Vertical Aerial Photograph: various. Google Earth / Bing Maps.
  • --- Map: Ordnance Survey. 1880s. Ordnance Survey 25 inch to 1 mile map, 1st edition.
  • <S1> Unpublished document: Alston, L.. 2013. Heritage Asset Assessment: Farm Buildings at Oak Hill Farm, Earl Soham.

Finds (0)

Protected Status/Designation

  • None recorded

Related Monuments/Buildings (0)

Related Events/Activities (2)

Record last edited

Aug 7 2019 2:39PM

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