Farmstead record SAL 031 - Farmstead: Wolmers

A historic building survey was carried out for a barn prior to its conversion. This is a 15th/16th C timber-framed and weatherboarded 3 bay structure, with a threshing floor and a 17th C stable and hayloft extension at one end. The rear wall was rebuilt in the 19th C and the roof was replaced in the 20th C. Despite the barn having a good quality timber-frame, with neatly chamfered and shaped jowls to the storey posts and large arch braces to the tie beams, the modifications carried out to it through time now mean that it is fairly incomplete.

The barn stands in the grounds of a 16th/17th C timber-framed and rendered listed farmhouse and is also located within a moated site (S1).

Wolmers, Stonham Aspal. 16th century farmstead and 17th century farmhouse with converted buildings. Regular courtyard multi-yard plan formed by working agricultural buildings. The farmhouse is set away from the yard. Significant loss (over 50%) of the traditional farm buildings. Located within an isolated position (S2-7).

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.

Monitoring of groundworks related to the conversion of the timber frames barn recovered medieval pottery from the barns floor surface, with strip foundations for an extension revealing made up grounds to a depth of 1m which may be the fill of a large pit of pond (S8).