Farmstead record YOX 022 - Farmstead: Wolsey House Farm

Wolsey House Farm is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed Os map. The farmstead is laid out in a full courtyard plan with additional detached elements. The farmhouse is attached to the agricultural range. The farmstead sits alongside a private track in an isolated location. There has been a partial loss of working buildings with modern sheds to the side.

Wolsey House Farm lies approximately 1.25 km SW of Yoxford Street. Hog Hill Lane terminates at the site but once continued westwards to form a loop which may have defined a medieval wood or green with the farm at its SE corner. The present farmhouse is a grade II-listed 17th century timber-framed structure concealed by 19th century red brick with gault brick facades to the north and east. A timber-framed dairy wing attached to the house was demolished. A mid-19th century outbuilding of red brick and slate to the west of the farmhouse forms a granary with open-sided cart and implement lodge on its lower storey. Its appearance closely mirrors that of the 1840 remodelling of the house. Its scale and layout reflects the size and status of the farm, with three ground-floor compartments and a central stair rising from the yard adjoining the southern entrance to the site. While the original brickwork remains largely intact, the floorboards and many ceiling joists have been removed or replaced and the roof structure was renewed in the 20th century. Much of the building's historic interest and integrity has been lost accordingly, but it remains a good example of a mid-19th century agricultural type. The adjoining stable lacks historic interest, having replaced a number of earlier buildings on the same site as shown on late-19th and early-20th century Ordnance Surveys. An early-17th century timber-framed threshing barn of four bays also survives at this site. In the 19th C it was extended to the west by two bays, re-roofed and partly rebuilt in brick (S1 & S2).

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.