Farmstead record FRS 080 - Farmstead: Friston Hall

Friston Hall is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed OS map. The farmstead is laid out in a full regular courtyard with the farmhouse set side on to the yard. The farmstead sets alongside a private track in an isolated location. There has been a significant loss of working buildings with modern sheds now on site (S1-3).

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.

The barn occupies the western side of the farmyard. It is a large threshing barn, of probable seventeenth century date. The main structure is timber framed with red brick infill and casing. The bricks typically measure 9" x 4½" x 2½", a common size for the seventeenth century and thinner than the standard size from circa 1840. The bricks are laid in Flemish bond with some burnt headers. Its use on the barn at Friston Hall shows the building to have been both up-to-date and of high status. A later addition on the eastern side of the central midstrey (which has bricks of similar size) is laid in garden wall bond (two stretchers alternating with every header). This addition may therefore date from as late as the early nineteenth century, possibly reusing bricks from the demolished part of the house. This addition (as well as further additions to the south which do not survive) are shown on the tithe map of 1845 and the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1882. The barn is of five bays. The roof has been entirely lost, along with the doors in bay 3 and (except for a few low courses, now covered in creeper) the west walls of bays 4 and 5. The outer walls remain upstanding in bays 1, 2, 4 (east side) and 5 (east and south sides). Where the walls remain upstanding, it can be seen that a low brick plinth runs around the building. On the internal face the wall has been refaced in cement up to the height of about 1m, encasing the timber framing, but there is evidence in the midstrey bay of the original sole plate just above ground level. There are brick infill panels between the studs, with much surviving evidence of a former plaster and limewash finish over the brickwork. The framing is of oak, with some of the timbers bearing carpenters’ marks. The bays are divided by jowled posts with tie beams, each with tenons cut in for diagonal bracing (S4).