Building record FRD 062 - Garden wall, Boundary Farm

The red-brick garden wall at Boundary Farm is a conspicuous feature of the Suffolk landscape adjoining the main A1120 between Stonham Aspal and Yoxford and is bisected by the parish boundary between Framsden and Winston. It is listed at grade II together with an adjoining timber-framed ‘barn and dairy’ but is of national historic importance in its own right as part of an exceptional complex of structures that illustrates the sophisticated nature of ‘minor gentry’ farmsteads during the first half of the 17th century. The site preserves no fewer than four listed buildings, of which two are rated at grade II-star, and was discussed at length in a major article by Edward Martin, Timothy Easton and Ian McKechnie published in 1993. The wall preserves the only evidence of a remarkable 17th century summerhouse with a decorative plaster ceiling that was described in accounts of the early-20th century and reflected those which can still be seen in the adjacent farmhouse. Walls of this kind which framed gardens or ‘base courts’ in front of high-status houses are often depicted in early paintings and engravings but are now rare in anything resembling their original form. Although not inspected for the purpose of this report the surviving ceilings in the farmhouse are believed to date from around the 1630s and to be contemporary with the example in the summerhouse which was integral to the wall (S1).