Greatham Manor Farm Granary Store

Summary

Late C18 or early C19 barn, later converted to a granary store and cart house stable.

Reasons for Designation

Greatham Manor Farm Granary Store is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Date: a pre-1840 farm building, which is probably shown on an 1827 estate map and an 1837 tithe map;
* Architectural interest: unusually for an agricultural building the front wall is in yellow brick although the remainder is timber-framed;
* Degree of intactness: the timber frame survives substantially complete;
* Group value: forms part of a group of listed buildings, including Greatham Manor and the parish church.

History

The land on which the farm buildings of Greatham Manor Farm are built was up to 1899 in the ownership of Greatham Manor, which is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. In the early C12 a chapel was in the hands of Lewes Priory and the donor was Alan de Dunstanville, successor to the Domesday tenant. Later families associated with both manor and church include Tregoz, Carew, Mille and Jutton.

In 1837 the manor was owned by Frederick Peere Williams and tenanted by Thomas Chatfield who had been the tenant from 1812. In 1828 it was laid down that Chatfield was to make the 'mansion house his usual place of residence and not to shut up the same or lay corn or other weighty things therein'. The granary store may correspond with the long north/south range shown on the 1827 Greatham estate map and the 1837 Greatham tithe map.

In 1871 a new lessee by the name of Friend Duke arrived and in 1875 plans were drawn up for 'proposed new buildings' which included two cart houses, two hovels and stables with related rooms to be added to a present granary store with a cart house stable to the rear. The granary store is shown on the 1876 Ordnance Survey First Edition map attached to some farm buildings described in the 1875 plans as new hovels. By the Second Edition map of 1897 further farm buildings have surrounded the granary store. Sales Particulars of 1898 detail the farm buildings which included a 'Spacious Granary and Store House'.

In 1899 a west country farmer, R L Batchelor bought the farm which became detached form the manor and built a separate farmhouse. The farm buildings are shown on the 1911 Third Edition Ordnance Survey map without further change.

Details

Probably late C18 with some later C19 and C20 modifications. It may have been constructed as a barn and later adapted to form a granary store with cart house stable to the north by 1875.

MATERIALS: the south-west side is built of yellow brick in English bond but the remainder of the building is timber framed, clad in weatherboarding with a half-hipped peg-tiled roof sitting on a plinth wall built of a mixture of brick, random stone and chalk blocks.

PLAN: the structure is of nine bays with a total length of 101 feet and 24 feet six inches width. There is evidence of cart entrances in the third and seventh bays on each side. A full-height partition divides the southern six bays from the northern three bays. There is a raised floor to the southern six bays only.

EXTERIOR: the south-west side has a central cambered pedestrian entrance in red brick approached up three stone steps with a C19 boarded door. The side elevations are weather-boarded and include some C20 door and window openings. The north-east elevation has a small central C20 window opening.

INTERIOR: the south-west brick wall is tied in with dragon ties. The wall frame has stud and diagonal brace framing and five of the bay posts are jowled (possibly reused). The tie beams are supported on curved braces and the roof structure has raking struts to side-purlins, the rafters linked with ridge-pieces. The fifth truss from the south has additional queen struts with a collar in addition to the raking struts and the sixth truss has a full-height truss and boarded partition. The six southern bays have a raised softwood floor with some stone and concrete staddle stones underneath and brick piers at their northern end. The three northern bays have later additional pairs of unfinished pole struts supporting a second higher row of side-purlins to the roof structure. There is no evidence for raised flooring to these three bays and there are access points in the middle of the side walls, suggesting this formed the 'Cart Horse Stable' shown in the 1875 plans.

Sources

Other
Hughes, Dr Annabelle F, Manor Farm Buidlings, Greatham, Evaluation of buildings with supporting documentary evaluation, 2010,

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.

Print the official list entry