3 Storey Farm Building at Manor Farm

Reasons for Designation

The three storey farm building at Manor Farm is designated at grade II for the following principal reasons:

* It is an example of a pre-Agricultural Revolution farm building * It is a nationally rare surviving form of multifunctional farm building with a pigeon loft above a granary above stabling or livestock housing. * It is a well preserved example of pre-1840 vernacular architecture * It has group value with the threshing barn to the south and the Grade II listed Thorpe Manor as part of the former manorial home farm.

Details

THORPE AUDLIN

1497/0/10009 WATCHIT HOLE LANE 13-NOV-08 THREE STOREY FARM BUILDING AT MANOR FARM

GV II

Multifunctional farm building, pre-Agricultural Revolution, probably early C18.

MATERIALS Coursed squared limestone rubble, stone slate roofs with pan tiles to later attached cart shed. Upper part of internal wall is of handmade, possibly C18 brick. The floor to the pigeon loft is lime ash laid on reeds.

PLAN Three storey, three bay building with a gable end with an external timber stair to the first floor to the south west and a 2 bay cart shed attached to the north east gable. The ground floor is accessed via the north west side and is divided into two cells with no interconnection. The two northern bays form animal housing, the southern bay originally being a tack room or workshop. The first floor is similarly divided but the rooms are interconnected. The southern room has internal access via a hatch to a pigeon loft above. The central bay is open to the roof and continuous with the northern bay which has an upper floor and a first floor doorway in the south east wall. This doorway has no external stair to ground level so may have always been a taking-in door.

EXTERIOR North west elevation: Central broad doorway later partially blocked and converted into a window with vertical timber slats. A second narrower doorway is to the left (north) with a heavily eroded sandstone lintel (all other lintels being limestone) with a small window beyond. The southern bay to the right has a doorway to the right. At first floor level there are two small shuttered windows at first floor level, the one to the left being smaller and probably inserted with a timber lintel. There are no second floor openings. The rear wall of the cart shed to the north is largely a retaining wall.

South west gable: Blocked ground floor window to the left (west) now partly covered by the line of the timber staircase. This staircase is of light section sawn timber and is not of special interest. It leads to a doorway on the right side of the gable at first floor level which retains a plank door hung on strap hinges. At high level on the second floor, central to the gable, is a square opening with a stone lintel and a protruding cill, this being the flight opening for the pigeon loft.

South east elevation: The southern bay has a ground floor window and another slightly further to the right (north) on the first floor above. Approximately central to the two northern bays there is a first floor letting in door with a glazed rectangular fanlight above. The cart shed to the north has two bays open to the south east separated by a chamfered pillar of red engineering bricks supporting timber lintels. This pillar is likely to be a replacement of an earlier pillar.

North east gable: The pitched roof of the cartshed partially covers a central, blocked first floor window. On the second floor above there is another window that retains a timber window frame divided into 16 small lights with slim glazing bars, some still retaining glazing at the time of the survey.

INTERIOR The two northern ground floor bays form a single space probably originally designed either as stabling or as cattle housing. The southern bay was originally well lit with two windows and may have formed a tack room or workshop. The exposed first floor floor beams are substantial and are probably original to the building. They support modern replacement floor joists and boards. The first floor of the southern bay has plastered walls, but the reeds of the lime ash floor to the pigeon loft above are exposed. The interior of the pigeon loft was not inspected, although any original built-in nest boxes would be of special interest. The northern two bays are unplastered. The central bay is open to the roof, the northern bay has an upper floor at second floor level with no permanent access. The exposed roof structure of the two northern bays consists of two king strut trusses of mainly hewn timber that is traditionally jointed and pegged supporting double, staggered purlins that are trenched and also pegged. Most of the rafters are also riven rather than being sawn.

HISTORY Manor Farm is believed to have originally been the home farm of Thorpe Manor and until the late C19 may have been directly managed from the manor house which lies just over 50m to the north west. This is because the house now known as Manor Farmhouse immediately to the west is not shown on the 1893 Ordnance Survey map, but was built by the next edition published in 1906. Thorpe Manor, which is listed grade II, may be pre-C16 in origin, but was remodelled and enlarged in the C17 with further alterations in the C19. The two earliest surviving buildings at Manor Farm, this building and the threshing barn to the south, are of a type that is difficult to date. They may originate from shortly after the C17 enlargement of the hall, possibly as the result of improvements instigated by a change in ownership, but may be as late as, for example, 1814 which is the date that Thorpe Audlin's openfield system was enclosed - enclosure of former openfields typically prompted the construction of new farm buildings. However their form and details of construction suggest that they date to before the introduction of ideas developed during the late C18 Agricultural Revolution. If the building did date to the late C18 or later it would be expect to have either more extensive accommodation for cattle (given the level of investment that the building represents) or if used as a stable, much better lighting and ventilation. The first floor would also be provided with better ventilation if used for hay. The scale of the floor beams suggest that the first floor was originally used for grain rather than hay storage, but ideas developed in the Agricultural Revolution ended the practice of storing grain above livestock as the smells from below were thought to taint the grain. In addition the third storey is more typical of a pre-Agricultural Revolution farm building of this type than one of a later date. Prominent buildings, such as this three storey structure, on home farms belonging to large estates in the later C18 and early C19 tended to have architectural embellishment such as accentuated quoins and raised coped gables with kneelers, so the more utilitarian construction of the building suggests an earlier date. The inclusion of a dovecot or large pigeon loft in the building gives further support to the interpretation that this was the manorial home farm as the right of keeping pigeons was often reserved by the lord of the manor. The attached cart shed is probably part of early C19 additions to the farm complex.

ASSOCIATED LISTED BUILDINGS Threshing Barn to the South and Thorpe Manor to the north west.

SOURCE "The Enclosure Maps of England and Wales 1595-1918" Kain et al 2004

REASON FOR DESIGNATION The three storey farm building at Manor Farm is designated at grade II for the following principal reasons:

* It is an example of a pre-Agricultural Revolution farm building * It is a nationally rare surviving form of multifunctional farm building with a pigeon loft above a granary above stabling or livestock housing. * It is a well preserved example of pre-1840 vernacular architecture * It has group value with the threshing barn to the south and the Grade II listed Thorpe Manor as part of the former manorial home farm.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

505089

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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