Farmstead record KDG 058 - Farmstead: Simms Farm

Simm's 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. This farmstead survives intact with additional modern sheds on site. (S1-4)

The main barn to the west of the house is a timber-framed and weatherboarded structure of circa 1820 which is clearly shown on the Kedington tithe map of 1842. It contains a threshing barn of five bays with a central porch to the north and a two-bay stable with a hay loft to the south. A number of timbers, including the jowled storey posts flanking the threshing bay, were re-used from a late-17th century predecessor. The original wall fabric has been much obscured by the insertion of a grain floor and internal cement render in the 20th century but appears to be relatively well preserved, and all four arch-braces of the threshing bay survive intact. The partition dividing the barn from the stable also appears to be original, albeit hidden by render, but the entire roof structure was rebuilt in the 20th century. An unusual lean-to granary with a suspended floor was added to the western elevation in the mid-19th century. The building is a good example of an East Anglian ‘combination’ barn and stable of the Napoleonic period, and is of accordingly of considerable historic interest, but given the loss of its roof it does meet the strict English Heritage criteria for listing.
The farm includes a number of other historic buildings, including a range of Victorian cattle sheds and an early-19th century cartlodge that appears to have been adapted from a late-17th century granary. A second barn on the southern side of the lane is a good three-bay example of the 18th century which bears a particularly impressive carved date of 1777 in the centre of a tie-beam. This probably belonged to a second house shown on the tithe map but demolished in the mid-19th century (S5).

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.