Farmstead record EDN 043 - Farmstead: Boarhouse Farm (Borehouse Manor Farm)

Boarhouse Farm is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed Os map. The farmstead is laid out in a regular U-plan with additional detached elements. The farmhouse is detached and set away from the yard. The farmstead sits alongside a public road in a hamlet location. This farmstead survives intact with additional modern sheds on the side. (S2-5)

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.

Borehouse Manor Farm occupies a medieval manorial site. The manor is documented from the 12th century and in 1218 was granted to Kersey Priory before being acquired by King’s College Cambridge in the 15th century. Extensive records including 14th century court rolls are held in the archive centre at King’s, which finally sold the property in 1934.

The present farmhouse is listed as early-19th century and formed only a range of labourers’ cottages at the time of the parish tithe survey in 1838. The building was not inspected internally and may contain earlier fabric. The tithe map shows a demolished earlier barn to the south of the present barn which was built in the 1860s or 70s as a traditional timber-framed and weatherboarded threshing barn of five bays with a slate roof and opposing full-height central entrances. The tall brick plinth of this structure is integral to a pair of single-storied red-brick sheds that project at right-angles on both sides of the barn’s gabled southern porch to form a small yard that was probably designed for cattle. These sheds were initially open-sided shelter-sheds with matching slate roofs, but unusually one faced another. These sheds were heavily altered in the late-20th century when they were converted into a farm office and a kitchen with showers and WCs. The wall fabric of the main barn survives largely intact, although its northern entrance facing the adjoining field has been blocked and three doors have been cut into its plinth. The two eastern bays contain a mid-20th century grain loft with a recent partition dividing it from the rest of the interior (S1).