Farmbuildings To N Of Park Farmhouse

Farmbuildings to N of Park Farmhouse, Steppingley

A planned farmstead to the north of Park Farmhouse, built around 1860 for the 7th Duke of Bedford. The buildings are constructed in red brick with gabled roofs of Welsh slate.

The farmstead is organized around three yards. The northern range forms the centrepiece, comprising single-storey sheds at either end, a two-storey straw or haybarn, a three-storey threshing barn wider than the other buildings, and a cart shed with granary above. The threshing barn features an unusual porch to its north, open to east and west and roofed with brick vaulting through the centre of which rises a chimney. This design almost certainly housed a portable steam engine that could be towed into position to stand under the chimney, with gearing for belting visible in the porch and extending into the barn. To the north of the porch is a small coal house and pump room. To the east stands a six-bay outward-facing cart shed with lozenge ventilators and casement windows lighting the granary above, supported on five cast-iron pillars with a staircase featuring cast-iron stippled treads. An earth closet is tucked beneath the stairs. The west side contains the straw barn with a wide opening below and sliding hatch opening into the loft above.

The western yard contains three loose boxes with three doors at the south end of the west range, a five-bay shelter shed supported on four cast-iron pillars to the north, and a livestock shed with a central door and window either side to the rear. The middle yard's western buildings comprise an open shed with central door to the south and a four-bay shelter shed supported by three cast-iron pillars to the north. The eastern building is a tall open cow shed and piggery with a side central door to the west, four narrow doors to the east for pigs, and a long clerestory for ventilation along the ridge. The eastern yard is enclosed by six-bay shelter sheds and loose boxes to the north.

Throughout the farmstead, openings are spanned by segmental arches and include plank doors, cast-iron casement windows, and hit-and-miss ventilator windows. Original hit-and-miss ventilation windows and sliding doors remain in place. The roofs are boarded behind slates and supported on king post trusses.

The buildings date to a period of significant estate investment under Francis, the 7th Duke of Bedford, who inherited in 1839. The Russells controlled vast estates throughout Bedfordshire, owning or controlling the parishes of Houghton Conquest, Ridgmont, Lidlington, Eversholt, Millbrook, Marston Moretaine, Steppingley, and Stevington in the vicinity of Woburn. In the late 1840s and 1850s, the Duke undertook an ambitious programme of agricultural improvement, replacing wood and thatched buildings with brick and slate or tile. This building activity was undertaken to meet the requirements of recent agricultural improvements and to enable tenants to compete in a market opened up by free trade in corn and agricultural produce, whilst the use of brick also served to protect against incendiarism and ensure the durability of buildings. Expenditure on permanent improvements reached a peak in the 1850s, with seventeen thousand pounds being spent in several years. The Steppingley buildings are described as 'new' in the 1860 Annual Report. The steam engine porch represents an unusual transitional type between the dedicated steam engine houses designed for fixed engines and the smaller, fully portable types that became standard.

These farmbuildings form a group value with the contemporary Jacobean-style Park Farmhouse to the south, which was designed in conjunction with the group.