Farmstead record GRU 058 - Farmstead: Rookery Farm (Breakneck Farm)

Breakneck Farm is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed OS map. The farmstead is laid out in a regular T-plan with a parallel elements. There are further detached elements and the farmhouse is detached and set away from the yards. The farmstead sits alongside a public road in a hamlet location.

2016 Heritage Asset Assessment of the Farmstead and its buildings which includes the main barn at Rookery Farm with attached structures, the granary standing to the south-west of the barn, the second barn standing 160m to the south of Rookery Farmhouse. Rookery Farmstead was constructed in 16th century and extended in 17th century. The main barn was built in the 18th century and is unusually complete. It is composite, incorporating two further units in addition to the threshing barn. During the early 19th century the barn space was extended by the removal of partitioning. The surviving areas of external boarded cladding, one or two early doors and evidence of other original doorways were recorded. Second hand timbers were recorded in the eastward stable-extension.
The granary is located near the entrance of the farmstead. It was designed to store the increased volumes of grain during a redevelopment phase that probably included the new barn during the early 18th century. It is well-built, complete, and an early example of its type, which incorporated open storage for carts and implements beneath the granary.
The second barn lies to the south-east of the present driveway. This land once belonged to another land-owner since c.1350. The core of the barn structure probably dates from about the end of the 16th Century, but it contains still-earlier second-hand timbers. The building is now in poor condition. The three central bays of the building represent the original barn dating from c.1600. There is evidence for continuing use with extensions of c.1700 and c.1800 by which time there was a stable on the east end (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.