Farmstead record SUT 295 - Farmstead: Middle Barn (Fomerly Lower Farm)

Lower Farm is an farmstead visible on the 1st Ed Os map. The farm is laid out in a regular L-plan with additional detached elements. The farmstea sits alongside a private track in a loose farmstead cluster. There has been a significant loss of buildings with just the L-plan range surviving.

Middle Barn formerly belonged to Lower Farm but no trace now survives of the farmhouse shown to the east of the site on 19th century maps. The existing timber-framed and weatherboarded barn is a replacement of the early-19th century. It represents a typical, well framed 'Napoleonic barn' of five bays and is of considerable historic interest, with traces of original red-ochre pigment to its external weatherboarding and a good roof of staggered butt-purlins. The original porch has been lost along with the roof covering while the southern gable has been rebuilt entirely and the arch-braces to its tie-beams have been replaced by bolted knees. The red brick animal yards and sheds that where added to the east and south of the barn in the mid 19th century also illustrate an important development in the regions agricultural history but these have been much depleted. A detached red-brick stable and hay loft to the south of the site is a particularly good example of its kind, with original louved windows and a ceiling that probably re-used timbers from the buildings shown in 1629, but its pantiled roof and upper storey had collapsed at the time of inspection and the structure was in very poor condition (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 (S3).