Building record BEG 095 - Rosery Farm

The principle buildings are the farmhouse, the barn, and a range of outbuildings that include a cart-lodge, woodshed and cowshed. These are relics of a much larger collection of outbuildings on the site including what may have been a granary. It seems that the granary had been demolished by 1881, to be replaced by other outbuildings, which themselves were significantly altered and added to. For example, in 1927 a new outbuilding appears in what is now the vegetable garden, and that seems to have survived post 1969 although there is now no trace above ground. The southern cart-lodge of the 1853 watercolour appears at the time of the sale of the site in 1949 but was replaced by the existing brick-built cowshed by 1969. The agricultural use of the site seems to have declined after 1970, and must have peaked much earlier, probably in the last quarter of the C19, when the old timber-framed farmhouse was refaced in brickwork and a carriage drive was created.

The relationship of the house to the farm and garden has changed significantly with the loss of so many of the older buildings and subsequent development. It seems likely the original farmhouse had its front door facing north to Lodge Road, but evidence of it has been obscured by a later outshut addition and perhaps the works of the 1970s. Originally the house must have been of high status, for the oak frame inside it is substantial and much of it intact. Its elevated position meant that in due course it looked over a large collection of farm buildings at lower level to the south, and the remaining low brick walls suggest how the site may have been organised, with traces still evident of the old steps linking house and farmyard.