Farmstead record SBK 073 - Farmstead: Grove Farm

Grove Farm, Stradbroke. 19th century farmstead and 16th century farmhouse. Regular courtyard U-shaped plan formed by working agricultural buildings, with a second smaller yard. The farmhouse is set away from the yard. Partial loss (less than 50%) of the traditional farm buildings. Located within a village (S1-6).

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.

Grove Farm Barn and Hall Barn Archaeological Statement: The barns and ancillary buildings would both appear to be of late 16th / early 17th century origins but relate to different farmsteads in the past rather than to the present ownership and boundaries. In both cases the farmsteads have developed more as an integrated unit with the adjacent farmhouse.

Hall Barn lies to the south of the site in the vicinity of Stradbroke Hall and to which it was formerly h linked, although now separate and in different ownership. It has distinct features of early 17th or even late 16th timber framed construction and the barn sits in combination with other buildings that together form a typical courtyard encasement. However, none of the present buildings appear on the 1835 Tithe map. Even given the cartographic inaccuracy of the Tithe map, several buildings shown on that plan no longer exist. Most of the present buildings, however, are shown on the First Edition of the Ordnance Survey map dated 1886 and the later second edition OS map dated 1905. The barn was originally part of the farmstead of Stradbroke Hall Farm, which originated from the 15th century, with considerable alterations and extensions in each subsequent century, up to the late 19th century. The 19th century alterations are clear from the map evidence. The barn also lies well beyond the boundary formed by the Medieval moated enclosure, which itself dates from further back to approximately the 11th century. Moreover, as noted above, none of the farm buildings on the Tithe map of 1835 exists on the site today. The only exception being the brick plinth of building 2 which, according to the Tithe maps, was in turn rebuilt before 1885 and this in turn was removed some time after 1905, leaving the brick plinth now above ground level. The nature of these earlier buildings is unknown. On the principal barn the threshing porch, for no obvious reason, is directly facing the moat and the doors have been sealed off. This, together with the map evidence, gives a clear indication that the barn has been re-erected from elsewhere between 1835 and 1886. This was a period of high agricultural industry and development at a time when the building would have been extensively used. It is further conjectured that due perhaps to the barn's size and location relatively close to the church, that it was a former tithe barn for the collection and storage of tithes from farmers in the vicinity.

The principal barn at Grove Farm appeared on the 1835 Tithe map and displays the construction characteristics contemporaneous with the farmhouse. The barn's siting appears to relate much more to the farmhouse as a conventional farmstead. A further building, appears close to the road where located on the 1835 Tithe map, but by 1886 this has been replaced by the current range of buildings. In more recent times during the 20th century modern agricultural buildings have been added to the complex to meet the needs of modern farming, but as part of the overall proposals these are to be removed (S7).