Farmstead record TNG 030 - Farmstead: Church Farm

Church farm is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed Os map. The farmstead is laid out in a regular U-plan with additional detached lemeents. The farmhouse is detached and set away from the yard. The farmstead sits alongside a private track in an isolated location. This farmstead has been completely lost with a modern dwelling on the site.

Church Farm occupies an unusual and picturesque site at the foot of a steep slope which descends from the arable field opposite St Peter's church to the meadow and marsh land in the valley bottom. It formed a modest tenanted holding of 54 acres in 1840. The three historic buildings form an unusually complete farmyard which has altered little since the early-19th century, but the adjacent farmhouse was demolished in circa 1960 and replaced by a bungalow at the top of the slope. A three-bay timber-framed barn of circa 1600 is adjoined by a rare and important early-17th century stable and hay loft which may represent the smallest example of its period in the county. A detached timber-framed neathouse (cow shed) to the south of the site dates from the 18th century and is unusual in that it too possesses a hay loft. The most impressive of the three buildings is a mid-17th century bakehouse which retains a complete 18th and early-19th century interior with no fewer than three coppers, an oven, boarded pump and stone sink. The structure was originally timber-framed with a fine brick gable and integral chimney which still survives, but its external walls were later rebuilt in brick. Bakehouses of this kind were once common in East Anglia but are now rare in anything approaching original condition, and this is the best example known to the author. Both the barn and bakehouse merit listing at grade II.

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.

An unusually complete 17th-century bakehouse and farm complex opposite St Peter’s church was recorded in advance of demolition (Fig. 18). A three-bay timber-framed barn of c.1600 was adjoined by a slightly later stable and hay loft with evidence for a gable hay rack and a single entrance door adjoining the barn. At just 3.75m in length the stable was among the smallest known examples of the period to survive intact. A rare timber-framed detached bakehouse of c.1630 with a decorative brick gable retained an 18th-century bread oven, pump, stone sink and three coppers (for washing, brewing and hot water), but the adjacent farmhouse was demolished in the 1960s. Bakehouses of this kind were once common in East Anglia but are now rare in anything approaching original condition. The site also included an 18th-century timber-framed neathouse (cow house). Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2008 (S6).