Farmstead record GAZ 024 - Farmstead: Needham Hall

Needham Hall is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed Os map. The farmstead is laid out in a model farm plan with the farmhouse detached and set away from the yard. The farmstead sits alongside a public road in an isolated location. There has been a partial loss of working buildings with modern sheds on site. (S1-4)

The buildings which survive on site appear to fall into two periods. Firstly the main barn and annex which are timber framed and probably once thatched are considered to date from the end of the 18th century. The technology employed here follows a long standing tradition of aisled barns and shows the importance of arable farming in this period. In the 19th century the farm was developed using model farm principles. The new buildings were built of brick and flint with slate roofs. The courtyard plan which was developed aimed to make the farm more efficient and showed a growing emphasis on animal rearing. By the 20th century buildings were already becoming unsuited for increasing mechanisation with the western range of the courtyard being replaced. In the 21st century the yard has become completely redundant for modern farming practices and a whole suite of new buildings have been built to the east allowing the conversion and reuse of the historic structures (S1).

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.