Farmstead record BUH 036 - Farmstead: Chantry Farm

The Chantry is a substantial grade II-listed 17th century house in the centre of a picturesque and historically important medieval moated enclosure immediately south of Brundish church. The site is thought to have been occupied by a priest serving a small chantry chapel founded in the church in 1385, and was known in the 16th century as ‘the Chantry House’. However the property was already leased as a farm just two years after the chantry’s confiscation by Henry VIII in 1544, complete with a widow living in one end of its hay barn, and this may have been the case from the outset. Later known as Chantry Farm it remained in the hands of the Crown until 1854, containing 172 acres of land in 1558 and 173.5 in 1840. The present house was completely rebuilt as a typical three-cell structure with ovolo-moulded ceilings and window mullions in circa 1620. The principal oriel windows faced the church on the north, although the site was always approached from the south. A Parliamentary survey of 1650 refers to the three ground and first-floor rooms of this structure, along with a ‘dairy house’ that no longer survives, but it was extended and dramatically remodelled soon afterwards. This remodelling is of special historic interest as it converted the original service rooms into the high-end bay of a second hall or ‘unit house’ for a widow or another semi-independent family member. The building was restored in 1987, when much of the internal plaster was removed, but the present southern facade retains an impressive array of early-19th century casement windows (S1).

Chantry Farm, Brundish. 19th century farmstead and 17th century farmhouse. Regular courtyard full plan formed by working agricultural buildings. The farmhouse is set away from the yard. Partial loss (less than 50%) of the traditional farm buildings. Located within a village (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.