Lower Farm

Details

CHILDERLEY

445/0/10019 CHILDERLEY HALL 21-FEB-07 Lower Farm

GV II The Lower Farm, c.1847. This originally comprised three south facing stock yards with open fronted shelter sheds arranged on an extended 'E' courtyard plan (the shelter sheds forming the north and east sides of the east yard have been demolished). The yards were originally enclosed on the south side by walls with gates for access. To the rear of the east yard are the remains of a series of sheep dips fed by water diverted from the adjacent stream. The buildings are of timber-framed construction, clad externally with weatherboarding and raised on brick plinths. The original slate survives on the roofs of all of the buildings except for the east barn where it has been replaced with corrugated iron.

The yards are divided by two substantial barns which run north-south. They are each divided into nine bays, the east barn having a lower hipped two bay section at the south end. The south end gables in both barns are open. Each barn has centrally placed opposing doors, one flush with the bar wall and the other set into a gabled porch projecting into the east and west yards respectively. Both sets of original double doors survive on the east barn. There are other original single doors in the sides of both barns. The roof of the west barn is hipped and comprises queen post trusses with purlins held in place by wooden chucks and arched braces to the tie beams. The east barn has a narrower span and higher brick plinth supporting wall plates and posts. The roof truss is a straight braced tie beam with clasped purlins to the collars. The barns would have been used for storage and distribution of the large quantities of chaff and straw required to feed and bed down the sheep, cattle and horses kept in the adjacent yards. The shelter sheds are each of nine bays with king-post roof trusses. There are mangers in the back of one shed. Most of the bases of the arcade posts have been replaced with concrete pillars. The lean-to shelter sheds around the central yard and the surviving portion of the east yard are later additions.

History: The long barn at Childerley Hall Upper Farm is inscribed with a date of 1847 and documentary evidence confirms this. The Lower Farm is likely to have been built at the same time or soon after the Upper Farm. An advert in The Times dated 1853 describes both farms as 'consisting of six yards, with the requisite barns, stabling, threshing machine'. Immediately to the south of Lower Farm are the earthwork remains of the medieval village of Great Childerley and to the east are the much overgrown remains of four fishponds, set in pairs and probably contemporary with the Hall.

Summary of Importance: A courtyard complex of stockyards and barns dating to the mid-C19 and planned as part of a well documented, largely intact and innovative model farm.

Sources: RCHME, West Cambridgeshire, pp 46-47 Register of Parks and Gardens of special historic interest (English Heritage), entry for Childerley Hall (site ref.1605), updated 2001 C Jenkins, Tales of Childerley (2002, Childerley Publishing) Victoria County History, Cambridgeshire & the Isle of Ely, Vol.IX (1989), pp 39-45 N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire (1970), p321

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

494728

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Salzman, L F, The Victoria History of the County of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely, (1989), 39-45
Jenkins, C, Tales of Childerley, (2002)
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire, (1970), 321

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.