Building record HTC 104 - Barn at White House Farm, Bird Street

White House Farm lies in open countryside in the small hamlet of Bird Street on the eastern side of Wattisham Road in Hitcham. The timber-framed and weatherboarded barn of four bays is an isolated structure at right-angles to the road approximately 100 m south-east of the farmhouse, and formerly belonged to another small farm based at what is now Barrells House some 250 m to the north-west. In its present form the barn probably dates from circa 1811, when the Napoleonic wars were stimulating grain production and this small farm is known to have doubled in size. It was shown with its southern entrance porch but without its northern lean-to additions on the 1840 tithe map. The two western bays, facing the road, are consistent with this period, but in the mid-20th century they were re-roofed in softwood and corrugated asbestos, replacing the previous thatch. The two eastern bays, however, survive from the early part of the 17th century and retain most of their original clasped-purlin roof structure complete with three of its four wind-braces. This 17th century timber frame formed a complete but diminutive two-bay building of just 7.8 m in length by 4.4 m in total width (25.75 ft by 14.5ft) with a hipped western gable and walls of approximately 3.4 m (11 ft). The studs of its western bay were largely removed as part of its 19th century conversion into a barn, but the eastern bay is intact with externally trenched wall braces and an original hatch at a height of some 2.1 m (7 ft) in its southern wall. A second hatch of similar proportions was subsequently inserted into the northern wall immediately opposite, and the two evidently served a missing loft. Although the precise location of the original entrance is unclear, the building appears to have lacked windows on its lower storey and is best interpreted as a fieldside neat-house (bullock shed) which now adjoins arable land but is shown on 19th century maps beside a pond in a linear pasture of medieval outline. While threshing barns of the 17th century and earlier are relatively common in East Anglia, other farm buildings such as stables survive in much smaller numbers and pre-19th century neat-houses are notoriously scarce. Cattle were once kept in their pastures and fieldside sheds were common, as indicated by early maps and field names, but most were demolished in the mid-19th century with the advent of the yard-based system of mixed animal husbandry known as Victorian High Farming. The structure offers a rare and historically important insight into the smaller agricultural buildings of the 17th century and at the very least should be regarded as a non-designated heritage asset (S1).