Farmstead record SSA 029 - Farmstead: Grove Farm

Grove 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 an isolated location. There has been a partial loss of working buildings (S1-3).

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.

The farmhouse is a timber framed building that is plastered externally, although the rear wing is partly faced in brick. The house has two storeys with an attic entirely within the roof space and having windows to each gable end of the roof. The main roof is pantiled and there is a large centrally located rectangular brick chimney stack. The front elevation displays a two window range of 20th century three light casements without glazing bars. The main front entrance door is centrally located under a 19th century gabled porch of painted brick with a slate roof. The farmhouse has a single storey painted and plastered brick extension to the rear.
The Ordnance Survey County Series Map of 1883 (see below) shows that all the extant barns and outbuildings to the north of the farmhouse were built at this time. It also shows that other additional buildings/structures also existed immediately to the west and to the east of the barn, which have since been demolished. Collectively, this group of buildings created an enclosed courtyard immediately to the south of the barn.
The historic barn and outbuildings enclose a single, south facing courtyard immediately to the north of the access to Grove Farmhouse. The historic barn comprises a four-bay, timber framed building that is weather-boarded externally and mounted on a red brick plinth around 500mm in height. The main doors are symmetrically located in the north and south elevations and provide the only means of access to the barn. The roof is steeply pitched, incorporating gable ends with wide bargeboards and is clad with traditional clay pantiles. Internally the barn has pegged collars/ties and knee braces to the tie beams. The roof has principal rafters with staggered purlins between the principal rafters at two different levels within the roof slope. Reeds can still be seen under the pantiles on the south side of the roof. It is difficult to precisely date the barn from jointing methods, but it is likely to date from the late 18th century (S4).