Farmstead record OTY 055 - Farmstead: Moat Farm

Moat Farm is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed Os map. The farmstead is laid out in a regular L-plan with additional detached elements. The farmhouse is detached and set away from the yard. The farmstead sits alongside a public road in an isolated location. There has been a partial loss of working buildings and a total loss of the farmhouse with a modern farmhouse on site.

Moat Farm barn is a distinctive L-shaped pantiled and weatherboarded barn of predominantly mid-19th century date however the gables are the remains of an earlier 18th/19th century building, visible on the tihe map. It was renewed as part of a major refurbishment which included the construction of a series of cattle yards and a long, narrow shelter-shed. The barn was largely rebuilt once again as part of a conversion during the 1980s which saw the renewal of its entire roof structure and cladding. The former stable wing underwent a more recent conversion and is now a cottage known as ‘The Hoot’. These extensive alterations have destroyed much of the building’s historic fabric. The barn’s chief historic value now lies in its external appearance and its relationship to the adjoining stable range and the shelter-shed to the west. All three structures retain their traditional mid-19th century pantiled roofs and general appearance, despite the shelter-shed’s truncation, and form part of the distinctive historic character of the local landscape (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.