Farmstead record TUN 029 - Farmstead: Shepherds Farm

Shepherds Farm is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed Os map. The farmstead is laid out in a regular L-plan with additional detached elements. The farmhouse is detached and set away from the yard. The farmstead sits alongside a public road in a loose farmstead cluster. This farmstead survives intact with conversion for residential use.

Shepherds Farm lies on the western edge of Tunstall, Suffolk, and formed a modest but respectable tenanted holding of 71 acres of chiefly arable land in 1840. All three farm buildings listed in the tithe survey of that year, viz. a barn, stable and granary, survived largely unaltered until the recent partial collapse of the stable. Each timber-framed structure dates from the early-19th century and probably reflects the development of marginal heath land during the Napoleonic wars (although the adjacent unlisted farmhouse dates from the mid-16th century). The farm was then part of a large estate belonging to the Sheppard family of Ash High House in neighbouring Campsey Ash. Complete farm complexes of this period are scarce in Suffolk, where most agricultural buildings were rebuilt or heavily altered during the mid-19th century, and the combined cartlodge and granary is a particularly good example of an increasingly rare type with unusual octagonal arcade and Sampson posts. A recommendation was made that, despite the condition of the stable, the buildings retain sufficient historic group value to merit listing at grade II, particularly given their conspicuous location at the southern entrance to the village.

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.