Farmstead record BAT 051 - Farmstead: Gibbon's Farm

Gibbon's Farm, Battisford. 19th century manor farmstead and 17th century farmhouse. Regular courtyard L-shaped plan formed by working agricultural buildings. The farmhouse is set attached to the agricultural range.Partial loss (less than 50%)of the traditional farm buildings. Located within an isolated position (S1-6).

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.

Gibbons Farm lies in open countryside approximately 1 km east of St Mary’s Church in Battisford. At the time of the parish tithe survey in 1842 it was a medium-scale tenanted arable holding of 64.5 acres on the local estate of the Earl of Ashburnham based at nearby Barking Hall. The property’s current name probably derives from a James Gibbon who farmed in the vicinity during the mid-19th century. Most of the land was sold separately in the 20th century and the timber-framed and rendered early-17th century former farmhouse was extended and altered to such an extent that it is not listed. The redundant early- to mid-19th century timber-framed and weatherboarded threshing barn some 40 m to the north-west survives largely intact and includes two areas of ostensibly original elm cladding, although its pantiles probably replaced thatch. It also retains an original lean-to rear porch that was designed to extend the length of the missing threshing floor. Part of the building’s eastern facade is adjoined by a late-20th century lean-to stable that protects the elm weatherboarding and incorporates an earlier flint-rubble wall but is otherwise of no historic significance. A linear range of farm buildings to the north has been partly demolished and rebuilt but preserves two flint-rubble sheds that may be contemporary. The barn retains a particularly impressive roof structure with two knee-braced A-frame trusses in each of its outer bays and two tiers of staggered butt-purlins that illustrate a transitional phase of carpentry between the fully arch-braced barns of the 18th century and the uniform softwood examples of the mid-19th. It is likely to date from circa 1820/30, despite its absence from the 1842 tithe map (which only partially revised another map of 1812), and also reflects the local cereal boom that followed the Napoleonic wars. The barn is accordingly of considerable historic interest (S7).