Farmstead record HRT 068 - Farmstead: Place Farm

Place Farm is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed Os map. The farmstead is laid out in a regular U-plan with the farmhouse detached and set away from the yard. The farmstead sits alongside a public road in a village location. All working buildings have been replaced by large modern sheds (S1-4).

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.

Place Farmhouse is a Grade II listed two storeyed timber-framed and plastered house. The timber-framed structure was constructed in two distinctive 16th and 17th century phases. Later 18th to 20th century alterations to the house are also evident. The 1839 tithe map shows Place Farm as a large homestead with most of the farm buildings located to the south-east of the farmhouse. The farmhouse has an east-west orientation. The farmhouse appears to have originally faced North but this was confused by a later alterations to the house. It has a t-shaped footprint, having an extension on the rear garden elevation to the north. The house appears to have been subdivded at the west end of the building, suggesting that the farmhouse was probably occupied by separate tenants/farmworkers during the 18thc and early 19th century. Following a devastating fire in 1843, the homestead was rearranged and most of the farm buildings rebuilt, the core faryard and farm buildings were relocated to the south-west of the farmhouse. The footprint of the farmhouse appears to have remained un-altered between 1885 and 1904. The outbuilding attateched to the west end of the house was altered and reduced. Further alterations were made to the farm buildings. By 1977 the 19th century farm buildings to the south-west of the farmhouse were demolished and replaced by 20th century structures (S5).