Farmstead record HBK 082 - Farmstead: Potash Farm

Potash Farm is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed Os map. The farmstead is laid out in a linear 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 with modern sheds on the site. (1-4)

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.

Potash Farm is a small farmstead to the North of Holbrook. The farm consists of the grade II listed Potash Farmhouse cottages and the agricultural barns to the West, which are included in the curtilage of the listed building. The threshing barn represents a good example of the large threshing barns constructed in the early 19th century for the threshing and storage of grain, which increased in popularity in the late 18th and early 19th century due to the demand and increased in export of grain. There is also a single storey timber framed barn on a brick plinth with fibre cement roofing sheets to the roof. To the South of the building is a soft red brickwork lean-to also with fibre cement roofing sheets. The building appears to be an adaptation of an earlier timber framed barn. The barn has a brick floor which indicates the early construction barn may have dated from the early 19th century. Between these two buildings is another timber framed barn. The front and rear wall has been replaced with blockwork. The pantiles remain on the roof and there is a timber open structure on the North elevation. The barn appears to be an ‘infill’ constructed building between the two earlier buildings and is indicated on maps from the 19th century (S5-S7).