Building record PAL 061 - Star Yard Barns, Millway Lane

Star Yard lies on the north-western edge of Palgrave village and consists of a redundant timber-framed barn that formerly belonged to Longs Farmhouse immediately to the south and a modern ‘eco house’ in close proximity to the rear (north). Longs Farmhouse is a grade Iilisted building of the 17th century or earlier, and the eco house was built by an architect for his own purposes in 1995; it rests on 2.5 ft high concrete stilts and is linked to the barn by a raised boardwalk. At the time of the tithe survey in 1837 the farm was a tenanted arable holding of 32.5 acres occupied by the eponymous Phillis Long.

The barn is an impressive four-bay structure with a good oak frame of the 18th century that retains all six of its original tie-beam arch-braces along with several features of particular historic interest. An area of original whitewashed, textured external render to its eastern gable illustrates the typical appearance of local barns before the advent of weatherboarding and tar in the 19th century, and its rear lean-to porch appears to have been designed in a highly abnormal manner with two side-doors but no central access. The building’s combination of chiselled and gouged carpenters’ numerals is also unusual. Unfortunately the original thatched roof was replaced by a shallow-pitched pantiled structure in the late-19th century, and much of the external render and studwork has been lost to tarred weatherboarding and cement block-work respectively. Large areas of wattle-and-daub remain in situ to the rear elevation but this loss of fabric means the building no longer meets the strict English Heritage criteria for listing. The adjoining sheds include an 18th century stable to the east, of which little more than the external gable survives, and twin shelter-sheds serving cattle yards to the south. The addition of these shelter-sheds, in conjunction with the conversion of the barn’swestern end-bay into a cow house (which preserves a boarded manger and hay rack),illustrates the development of local agriculture during the second half of the 19th century. The appearance of the resulting building group is also of historic interest, remodelled at the sameperiod to create a uniform complex of red pantiles and tarred boarding that is typical ofVictorian farmsteads in East Anglian and provides important visual context for the listedfarmhouse (S1).