Farmbuildings West Of Manor House

Farmbuildings West of Manor House

A model farmstead built in 1868 and designed by J. Young Macvicar for the Lincolnshire landowner Christopher Turnor.

The farmstead is constructed of red brick with slate roofs and follows an E-shaped plan with two open crewyards. The buildings are predominantly single storey, except for a two storey range to the rear and a two storey central range which extends southwards as a single storey range of two stock buildings separated by a feeding passage. Originally there were parallel ranges with open sides within the yards, connected by a passage between outer and inner ranges. Many of the inner buildings have been partially dismantled, leaving only gable ends and back walls, though the passage between the main ranges and crewyards remains.

All ranges are built in brick laid mainly in English garden wall bond with dentilled eaves. Windows and doors feature full header segmental arches. The south roadside elevation displays the paired gable ends of the central range with a central plank door, and triple round-headed lights in each gable. Behind this stands a two storey range terminating in a square tower-like dovecote with hipped roof; this dovecote originally had a lantern surmounting it, now lost. The south boundary walls of the crewyards link the central range to the outer ranges. The rear north elevation of the barn complex has four open bays for carts with segmental arches and brick piers, with windows above each bay, while the east end features four double planked doors (one blocked) with loft doors to the first storey. To the east is a single storey range with two cart bays and one pair of barn doors. A drive wheel for the feed mill is visible inside the barn attached to the outer wall. The south elevation includes a lean-to against the main range containing hen houses, each with a plank door and a small vertically sliding door near ground level.

Internally, the ranges reflect their different functions. All main ranges have king post roofs. The west range contains two stables separated by a tack room, with a barn at its north end. The first stable has brick feed troughs against the west wall and a cobbled floor sloping to a central drain. The tack room retains its wooden harness and tack hangers set into the wall. The second stable preserves its feeding troughs and wooden partition divisions for stalls.

The passage connecting the crewyards and buildings links the west range to the primarily two storey range to the north. The central barn with granary above has opposing double doors matched by doors to the barn immediately south, which in turn lead directly into the central feeding passage between animal housing at the south end of the central range. This creates a continuous link between feed processing and distribution. Initial processing occurred in the north barn, where grain was fed through a hopper into a cast-iron framed corn mill made by the Lincoln firm Clayton and Shuttleworth, driven by an external portable steam engine. Drive shafts serving other machinery are visible in the barn, probably including a chaff cutter or similar equipment on a first floor platform above the southern door. Although this machinery no longer survives, the drive wheel below the platform remains, with wear from the drive belt visible in the brickwork. South of this barn, the passage allowed direct feed delivery to animals through hatches into troughs on either side.

A similar arrangement fed pigs in their two sties at the north end of the east range, where counterweighted doors slide up to allow food to be tipped directly into the pigs' feeding troughs. The edges of these and door openings are finished in rounded bricks. South of the pigsties are the tack room and trap house. The latter has been altered, but stables for trap and riding horses survive, as do the tack room's fittings including fireplace, cupboards, and harness and saddle holders. Although most open fronted cattle shelters in the crewyards have been partially dismantled, feeding arrangements survive on the east side of the east crewyard, where top hung two way opening hatches remain at ground level.

The farmstead was built towards the end of the agricultural revolution period (1750–1880), when major developments in farmstead plans and building types reflected innovative agricultural practices. The layout is specific to the Turnor estates and appears not to have been imitated elsewhere. The farmstead has remained little altered over the years, except for the partial dismantling of the open sided cattle shelters in the crewyards in 2003.