Farmstead record ESO 035 - Farmstead: Dial Farm

Dial Farm is a farmstead is a 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 an isolated location. The farmstead survives intact.

The farmhouse to the south of the site is a grade II-listed timber-framed structure of the 16th and 17th centuries with a 19th century brick facade, but there is evidence of a medieval moat to the north. The farm complex dates entirely from the 19th century, and includes a timber-framed and weatherboarded barn of five bays with an original pantiled roof of staggered butt-purlins. Its walls consist largely of re-used timber that was probably salvaged from a barn of similar scale shown in the same position in 1840. The building is of some historic value as a typical East Anglian threshing barn of circa 1830-50, and is a conspicuous feature in the landscape as it adjoins a public road, but is incomplete, having lost its original western porch. The roof has racked and a number of softwood arch-braces in the 17th century style have been introduced to give additional support (although the frame was designed only with bolted knee-braces). A timber-framed stable of three bays to the south-west of the yard is broadly contemporary with the barn and is of similar historic interest, with both structures probably re-using timbers from their 17th century predecessors. It retains a degree of 19th century character in the form of internal boarding to its lean-to tack-room and the sliding door of an intact chaff box, but its hay loft and all other fixtures and fittings have been lost. The remaining farm buildings consist of single-storied red-brick shelter-sheds which were added to the barn and stable in at least two phases later in the 19th century to create a series of cattle and horse yards in the usual fashion of the period (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.