Farmstead record BXF 050 - Farmstead: Cox Farm

Cox Farm is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed Os map. The farmstead is laid out in a regular full plan with additional detached elements. The farmhouse is detached and set away from the yard. The farm sits alongside a public road in an isolated location. There has been a partial loss of working buildings with the remaining converted for residential use. (S2-5)

Cox Farm is a grade II-listed timber-framed building of considerable historic interest. It contains three separate phases of construction, and has undergone many alterations, but originally reflected the standard room layout of local farmhouses in the 16th century; its central hall was entered by a cross-passage and flanked by a parlour to the north and a service room on the south. The parlour takes the form of a jettied cross-wing with a plain crown-post roof, and dates from circa 1520. It contains evidence of an exceptionally large and impressive oriel window. This cross-wing probably adjoined a medieval open hall that was subsequently demolished and rebuilt in the fashion of the later 16th century with a chamfered ceiling and a chimney against the cross-passage. The medieval hall may well have possessed a matching service cross-wing to the south which was rebuilt in its present form during the early-17th century, with an unusually large, single room on its lower storey. The house is substantial by the standards of its day, extending to over 70 feet in length by 21 feet in width, but was initially larger still as there is evidence to suggest it has been truncated to both the rear and the south. The internal partitions were rearranged in the 18th century, when a new staircase and entrance doors were inserted, but the building escaped extensive restoration in the 20th century and retains its integrity as a traditional Suffolk farmhouse (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.