Farmstead record CHL 074 - Farmstead: White House Farm

White House Farm is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed Os map. The farmstead is laid out in a regular U-plan with additional detached elements. The farmhouse is detached and set away from the yard. The farmstead sits alongside a public road in a village location. This farmstead survives intact with additional modern sheds to the side. (S2-5)

The farm buildings for an almost completely intact model farm, a single-phase complex of uniform red-brick and pantiled structures arranged arounf a yard in the ideal layout of Victorian High Farming. Complexes such as this were expensive and are rarely found on on-estate holdings. The complex extends to 36.5m in depth from north to south and 34.5m in width, and consists of a timber-framed and weatherboarded barn with lean-to cart lodges on the north, a pair of single-storied linear brick sheds containing central stables, looses boxes and shelter-sheds to the east and west, and a brick perimeter wall with a central gateway adjoining the road to the south. Uniformly roofed with costly glazed pantiles and 'eared' southern gables (corbelled eaves), it was designed to present an imposing and symmetrical appearance to the main road. The brickwork and carpentry is entirely typical of the late-19th century and the complex almost certainly dates from the 1870s (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.