Details
TQ 83 NE
533/2/10006
SOUTH CREAKE
WATERDEN
Barns, stables and attached outbuildings at Waterden Farm
GV
II*
Farm complex. c.1700-1871. Built for the Holkham Estate. Brick, used in combination with flint, and with small areas of chalk and re-used medieval masonry. Pantile, C20 plain clay tile and slate roof coverings.
PLAN: early C18 BARN, with late C18 BARN and STABLE added at east end. To the north of this range, 2 yards enclosed by SHELTER SHEDS and enclosed boxes. West yard a horse yard with a STABLE range to the west, and SHELTER SHEDS to the east side. South of the early C18 barn, CATTLE SHEDS form 2 enclosed yards, those at the end built c.1800, the central range dated 1870.
EXTERIOR: FRONT(east)ELEVATION: late C18 barn to right, rear wall of shelter shed to left. Double doorway to left serves feed store, central doorway gives access to a covered way into south yard. To the right of the covered way, double full-height doorway gives access to a brick-floored threshing bay. Further right, a square panel of honeycomb brickwork forms a decorative vent.
SIDE (south) ELEVATION with hipped roofs to end shelter sheds, and gable end to centre shed with date stone of 1871. Yard front wall of flint with brick lacing, the former sub-dividing wall now removed. South wall of early C18 range obscured by open lean-to shelter sheds.
SIDE (north) ELEVATION: yard west boundary wall formed by rear wall of stables, with half-hipped roof and 6 rectangular high level windows to rear wall. North boundary formed by rear wall of shelter sheds, which have a single door off centre, and a second door giving access to the cowhouse in the extreme left corner. North wall of early C18 barn, of chalk blocks with fragments of medieval masonry removed from nearby church, formerly the main facade. It retains 3 double doorways to former threshing floors, but has lost a porch shown on a map of 1712. Added stable at west end.
INTERIORS: late C18 barn, with 7-bay double purlin roof, the purlins staggered, and the tie beams not aligned with the principal rafters. Single collar beams link principal rafters. Early C18 barn of 16 bays, now sub-divided by 2 internal walls of brick and flint, and with loft to central part. Roof carpentry matches that of later barn. Rear doorways to threshing bays all now blocked. Stable to west end lofted, with tack/ chaff room to south end. Stable range sub-divided longitudinally, to form general stabling area along the back wall and chaff and harness rooms along the front. Central doorway into horse yard, blocked doorway to centre of rear wall.
HISTORY: this farmstead is an early example of a planned C18 farmstead on an estate which was nationally-renowned in this period; it is also an early example of a planned farm located away from the centre of a great estate. It impressed contemporary observers; Arthur Young wrote in 1784 that nothing in this style can exceed the buildings that Mr Coke has raised at Waterden. Every convenience to be imagined is thought of, and the offices so perfectly well arranged as to answer the great object, to prevent waste and to save labour'. In 1818, Francis Blakie wrote that they were perhaps the finest set of farm premises in Great Britain'. As with other Holkham farms, the buildings were modified and added to in the 1870's, when the cattle accommodation was substantially enlarged and improved: these are strongly representative of improvements effected elsewhere in this region.
(S. Wade Martins, A Great Estate at Work, 1980).
Listing NGR: TF8872336111
