Reasons for Designation
Green Farm, an early C18 vernacular building modified in the late C19, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Intactness: The house is a substantially intact example of an early C18 timber framed vernacular building.
* Alterations: The later alterations are a good example of C19 modernisation.
* Plan: The plan of the house records a representative sequence of development and illustrates the evolution of ideas of privacy and comfort from the medieval hall house to the C19.
Details
LITTLE ELLINGHAM
38/0/10009 Green Farm
04-MAR-11
II
Early C18 farmhouse; timber framed with roughcast clay lump and wattle and daub infill under a gabled, pantiled roof. The north gable end and north-east cross wing are of Fletton brick laid in Flemish bond. The C20 east outshut is of composition bricks, with corrugated iron roof. This is a three cell house, of two storeys, with staircase tower and outshut, with additional single storey lean-to outshut.
EXTERIOR: The principal elevation is to the west, and has three two-light cross casement windows to each floor; a four-panelled front door is offset to the south. There is a ridge stack off-set to the north of centre, an external gable end stack to the south and a further external stack against the east gable of the two storey north-east cross wing. The north gable end contains an entrance with a four panelled door with overlight, and a small attic window. The east elevation has a wide catslide roof over the C18 outshut, through which rises the staircase tower. The post-war lean-to stops short of a timber cellar access door at the south end of the east elevation. Above the cellar door is a casement window.
INTERIOR: The interior contains three principal living rooms connected by a corridor to the east; this was inserted during the late C19 modernisation. The transverse beams of each room pass through the studwork partition which creates the corridor. A door to the north gives access to the corridor from the outside. The chamfered beam to the north room has large tongue stops, and the room contains a 1930s tiled fireplace, to the right of which is a cupboard with a planked door. The centre room (the dining room) has a chamfered beam with tongue stops and an elaborate chimney piece of variegated marble with a cast-iron insert. The west wall contains the four-panelled front door, and there is an C18 two panelled door in the late C19 east partition wall. The south room beam is also chamfered and the room contains a hatch that opens into a storeroom at the south end of the house. To the east of the corridor the former dairy has a brick floor and retains its brick shelving to the north, east and west walls, the upper surface of which is finished with pamments. Studwork is visible in the west wall, which also contains a blocked doorway that formerly opened into the north living room of the west range, originally used as a kitchen. A door in the east wall opens into the late C19 kitchen which has a tall opening for a kitchen range, to the left of which is a cast-iron bread oven. The pantry is in the C18 outshut; the studwork of the west wall is visible, and a horizontal sliding sash window looks into the corridor. To the east of the C18 outshut is the 1949 lean-to, of exposed blockwork construction.
A closed-well staircase rises to a landing by the chimney stack, and at the head of the stairs is a cupboard with a raised and fielded two panel door on plain butterfly hinges. The plan form of the first floor is similar to that of the ground floor, with the south room divided into two, the smaller one to the west opening into the central room. The outer walls have jowled posts and chamfered tie beams; that to the north bedroom has small tongue stops. The north wall contains studs of heavy scantling. The south and east walls also have exposed studwork and straight braces. The fireplaces in the east room above the dairy and in the central room contain arched register grates. Most doors are early C18, with two panels and HL hinges, except for the planked door with strap hinges to the bathroom to the south of the corridor.
A three-plank door on HL hinges opens onto a winder staircase which rises to the attic by the east side of the main stack. The attic rooms also have three-plank doors and there are wide early C18 floorboards. The roof is intact and consists of principal and common rafters with a single tier of staggered butt purlins and collars.
HISTORY: Green Farm lies at the centre of the nucleated village of Little Ellingham, and was built in about 1730. The farm buildings to the north of the house date to the second half of the C19; they are not those shown on the Tithe Map of 1840. The farm was bought in 1884 by James Huggins, who was responsible for modernising and extending both the house and farm buildings. The work to the house included reconstructing the north gable end, raising the dairy at the north end of the east elevation to two storeys and adding to it a new single storey kitchen. In 1949 a lean-to outshut was added to the east of the house, and the external roughcast was renewed in the 1970s. The farm has remained in the family for three generations.
SOURCES:
Norfolk Record Office, DN/TA 503, Little Ellingham Tithe Map (1840)
Blomefield, F, An Essay towards the Topographical History of Norfolk, Vol. 2 (1808), 287-290
Gooderman, J, A Chronology of Ellingham and Kirby Cane (2000), 24-25
Kelly's Directories of Norfolk (various editions)
William White's 'Directory of Norfolk' London (1845), 457-458
http://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk accessed on 10 June 2010
REASON FOR DESIGNATION: Green Farm, an early C18 vernacular building modified in the late C19, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Intactness: The house is a substantially intact example of an early C18 timber framed vernacular building.
* Alterations: The later alterations are a good example of C19 modernisation.
* Plan: The plan of the house records a representative sequence of development and illustrates the evolution of ideas of privacy and comfort from the medieval hall house to the C19.
