Woodend Farm

Summary

A mid-C19 farmstead by J&J Girdwood of London for Edmund Probyn.

Reasons for Designation

Woodend Farmstead, Huntley, Gloucestershire, a farmstead of 1858, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural interest: the buildings have an articulate ‘estate-style’ with handsome and well-crafted features in quality materials, laid out confidently in a practical and eye-catching arrangement;
* Interior: the general layout of buildings and some internal fittings survive and add to the interest of this farmstead;
* Intactness: the buildings remain largely intact, albeit modified in some areas in accordance with changing agricultural methods;
* Regional diversity: as an example of a C19 architect-designed farmstead, built in red brick.

History

On the edge of the Forest of Dean, the village of Huntley was historically surrounded by woods and commons, with plantations and farms interspersed with cottages. By the early C18 Woodend Farm was the largest farm in the manor. Its farmhouse had been built by the C17 and a mill pond is recorded as being filled and planted with a woodland nursery by 1732. The farmhouse was extended and remodelled in brick in the early C19, and is shown on the tithe map of 1838, rectangular on plan with what appear to be a mill wheel on the north-east elevation by a pond. Farm buildings are shown to the south, west and north-west. The tithe apportionment lists Reverend John Probyn as owner and Joseph Drinkwater as occupier. The Probyns of Newland had been buying land in Huntley since the late C17, and Sir Edmund Probyn (1678-1742) was Lord of the Manor in Huntley from the mid-1720s. His descendant, also Edmund Probyn, became lord of Huntley in 1855 and in 1858 engaged J&J Girdwood of London to re-design Woodend Farm to be the largest planned farmstead on his estate. The farmhouse was also enlarged and remodelled at this time. The Probyn estate was sold to the Ackers family of Prinknash Park in 1884, and some of the farmhouse features, such as the dormers and window fittings, may date from this period.

The farm served as a riding school in the late C20 and early C21. An arena was built to the west of the farmhouse in 1979 and the house served as offices and student accommodation. There are other late-C20 agricultural structures on the site. In 2016 the house is being restored to a single dwelling house and the farm buildings are no longer in use.

Details

A FARMSTEAD of 1858 date by J&J Girdwood of London for Edmund Probyn.

MATERIALS: of red brick laid in English bond, with stone plinths to the two external facades. Attached are low limestone walls to the yard and farmhouse garden, extending to a plinth to a modern shed in the north east corner. The principal farm buildings have cogged eaves and verges, with short returns at the foot of the gables. There are stone cills to the windows, and most openings have segmental heads, brick-on-end voussoirs and chamfered arrises. The roofs are covered in slate.

PLAN: a large E-plan, single-storey except for part of the barn range. Across the west entrance to the yard is a single-storey building, possibly a cartshed.

DESCRIPTION: the main (east) approach has a yard entrance with a cartshed gable to the left and a single-storey stable block flank to the right extending north to a higher gable of the attached hay barn. The stable flank has a central door positioned above the rubble stone plinth and small ventilation openings to the right. The barn gable end has a door opening to two floors, one above other, the upper with a stone cill. There is a carved stone datestone in the gable: EP 1858. There are five tie-ends bolted to the elevation.

The N elevation has sliding double-doors to the barn to the left, and to its right two narrow, flat-headed windows and then further doors and a window. Above the right bays is a mid-height shuttered door and above that are two dormers with flat head openings and stone cills. The far-right bay with another window and double doors with stone hinge blocks is enclosed in an attached modern Dutch barn.

The E yard has stable openings to the E wing, one sealed, and a central set of double doors. The S elevation of the barn has a similar fenestration to its N elevation. The hay barn in NE corner has had the threshing floor removed. The adjoining two-storey section contains a feed preparation area and granary with a timber stair. In the E wing stables (a trap-house originally), there are two brick troughs surviving, one relatively altered.

The eight-bay central wing was originally a wide, double cow house. It has altered openings to both yards. The N-end bay was for feed preparation, with chimney, roof light and prominent octagonal louvered ventilator with iron weather vane. The S end of the central wing extends into the W yard and has altered openings.

The W yard has single-storey stables to the N, lit only by roof lights. There are two elliptical-headed openings in corner, with four semi-circular headed openings adjoining. The openings were originally partly closed by the floor of the wall with a low door. One is unaltered.

In the E-plan farmstead, roof trusses generally timber king-posts, although the central wing has iron trusses, an early example in farm buildings

Facing the E yard in the SE corner the former cart shed has wide cambered openings to left and right. The central arch has been widened and strengthened with concrete block work, and is therefore of lesser interest than the E-plan buildings. There are small inserted openings in the S wall and the roof is of king-post construction.

OTHER BUILDINGS
The adjacent farmhouse*, while in part of C17 origin, is not of special interest although its red brick elevations and its scale and appearance as a farmhouse of C19 character complement the listed farmstead. The other buildings on the site are of C20 or C21 date* and are not of special interest.


* Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that these aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

354116

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Brooks, A, Verey, D, The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire II: The Vale And Forest of Dean, (2002), 545
Jurica, A.R.J., A History of the County of Gloucester Volume XII: Newent and May Hill, (2010), 174-195

Websites
Dictionary of Scottish Architects: J&J Girdwood, accessed 19/08/2016 from http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=203109
Landed Families of Britain and Ireland: Ackers of Huntley Manor, accessed 07/10/2016 from http://landedfamilies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/13-ackers-of-huntley-manor-formerly-of.html

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