Farmstead record BUG 047 - Farmstead: Moat Farm

Moat Farm is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed OS map and the Burgh Tithe map. The farmstead is laid out in a regular Z-plan with the farmhouse detached and set away from the yard. The farmhouse is listed and dates to the early 18th century. The farmstead is set alongside a public road in an isolated position. The farmhouse has been divided and converted to two dwellings. The Z-plan has been extended and converted for retail use. This represents a significant loss (50%) (S1-4).

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 .

Moat Farmhouse is a substantial south facing two storey timber framed building with attic accommodation within the roof spaces at second floor level. External elevations are rendered and roofs are tiled with clay plain tiles. Windows are generally of sash type with a predominance of casements to north, west and east elevations at first and second floor levels generally. The main south facing range has a short rear projecting single bay range to the west and a longer three bay projecting range to the east. The building is described in the list description as dating from the early eighteenth century although its origins are most likely earlier as evidenced by a study of the current building’s plan form which shows a structure that has undergone considerable alteration and extension throughout the centuries. Deciphering the building’s chronological evolution or ‘morphology’ is, however, problematic on account of the extensive internal modernization and covering over of historic fabric that has taken place in the twentieth century. Whether the building was first constructed in the seventeenth century as a 2 cell lobby entry house with central chimney stack or, possibly an earlier 3 cell mediaeval hall, is unclear and conjectural and based on the available evidence to date. Despite this uncertainty as to the original built form, it is possible to determine the likely phases of the building’s historic development based on an examination of the external form of the building and professional judgement. It is also apparent the building underwent significant modernization in the eighteenth century as can be evidenced from much of the building’s external form and character and disposition of fenestration (S5).