Farmstead record BGL 047 - Farmstead: Dairy Farm

Dairy Farm is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed OS map. The farmstead is laid out in a parallel pattern with an additional detached barn. The detached barn is an early 19th C barn with late 19th C lean-to sheds & early 20th C milking parlour. 1920 covered cattle shed. 6 20th C sheds and shelters. The farmhouse is detached and set away from the yard. The farmstead is located alongside a public road in a small hamlet. There has been significant loss of the working buildings with modern working buildings on site.

The Barn in a timber-framed and weatherboarded structure of five bays, with a central entrance in its southern elevation. It contains an impressive roof of staggered butt-purlins and combines both arch and knee-braces in a typical manner of the 19th C. Its high quality framing reflects its status as a constriction for a gentry estate and is a good example of a 'Napoleonic' barn, illustrating the local agricultural boom.

Despite its relatively early date, the building has been much altered and so probably doesn't meet the strict English Heritage criteria for listing, I.E its loss of its original porch and thatch as well as the insertion of a number of doors into the original wall structure.

The rest of the farmyard dates to the 20th C and includes several lean-to sheds, a milking parlour and covered cattle yard c. 1920. The buildings form a typical and picturesque group, but are not of any significant historic importance.

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.