Farmstead record CHA 036 - Farmstead: Shrubbery Farm

Shrubbery Farm is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed OS map. The farmstead is laid out in 2 regular U-plan courtyards with additional detached elements. The farmhouse is detached and set away from the yard. The farmstead is set alongside a public road in an isolated position. There has been a partial loss (25%) of the working buildings with the addition of modern working buildings to the side.

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.

Shrubbery Farm contains a rare collection of high-quality early- and mid-19th century farm buildings that represent a largely complete Victorian farm complex as depicted on the First Edition Ordnance Survey of 1883. The site is bisected by the parish boundary between Charsfield and Dallinghoo, with the grade II-listed 17th century farmhouse in the former and most of its outbuildings in the latter. At the time of the two tithe surveys in 1838 and 1840 the property was a substantial arable holding of 240 acres on the affluent Glevering Hall Estate which amounted to 3,464 acres in 1895. Most of this land was purchased around 1800 by the Arcedeckne family which owned the Golden Grove plantation in Jamaica and probably built the impressive five-bay weatherboarded ‘Napoleonic’ threshing barn soon after their acquisition of Shrubbery Farm. This appears to be the only structure to pre-date the tithe surveys, with a second threshing barn added in circa 1850-60 along with a granary and a pair of structurally identical red-brick buildings forming a coach house and stable. The granary lies above a cart lodge and is a well preserved example retaining its original grain bins and sack hoist together with a rare grain mill that may have been salvaged from a windmill. The coach house and stable are high quality buildings with symmetrical facades and unusual decorative blind arches to their rear walls. A large shelter-shed was added slightly later (S4).