3 Storey Farm Building At Manor Farm

THREE STOREY FARM BUILDING AT MANOR FARM, THORPE AUDLIN

A multifunctional farm building of pre-Agricultural Revolution date, probably early 18th century, located at Manor Farm which is believed to have originally been the home farm of Thorpe Manor.

The building is constructed of coursed squared limestone rubble with stone slate roofs. Pan tiles have been added to a later attached cart shed. The upper part of an internal wall is of handmade brick, possibly 18th century. The floor to the pigeon loft is lime ash laid on reeds.

The structure is a three storey, three bay building with a gable end, accessed via an external timber stair to the first floor on the south west side. A two bay cart shed is attached to the north east gable. The ground floor is accessed from the north west side and is divided into two cells with no interconnection. The two northern bays originally formed animal housing, with the southern bay serving as a tack room or workshop. The first floor is similarly divided but its 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 and may always have been a taking-in door.

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

The south west gable has a blocked ground floor window to the left, now partly covered by the timber staircase. This staircase is of light section sawn timber. 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 protruding cill, serving as the flight opening for the pigeon loft.

The south east elevation shows the southern bay with a ground floor window and another slightly further to the right on the first floor above. Approximately central to the two northern bays 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 a replacement of an earlier one.

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

Internally, the two northern ground floor bays form a single space probably originally designed for stabling or 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 beams are substantial and probably original to the building, supporting 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, while 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 riven rather than sawn.

Manor Farm is believed to have originally been the home farm of Thorpe Manor and until the late 19th century may have been directly managed from the manor house, which lies just over 50 metres to the north west. 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-16th century in origin but was remodelled and enlarged in the 17th century with further alterations in the 19th century.

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 precisely. They may originate from shortly after the 17th century enlargement of the hall, possibly as the result of improvements instigated by a change in ownership, but may be as late as 1814, which is the date that Thorpe Audlin's open-field system was enclosed. Enclosure of former open-fields typically prompted the construction of new farm buildings. However, their form and details of construction suggest they date before the introduction of ideas developed during the late 18th century Agricultural Revolution. If the building dated to the late 18th century or later, it would be expected to have either more extensive accommodation for cattle, given the level of investment 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 storage. The scale of the floor beams suggests 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. The presence of a 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 18th and early 19th centuries 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 19th century additions to the farm complex.

The building has group value with the threshing barn to the south and Thorpe Manor to the north west as part of the former manorial home farm.