Barfield Farmhouse

Barfield Farmhouse, Outings Lane, Doddinghurst

A hunting lodge, now house, of early 17th-century origin with 18th-century, 19th-century and 20th-century alterations and additions. The building is constructed of timber-frame with exposed framing in parts and brick rendered elsewhere, with peg-tiled roofs throughout.

The plan is rectangular, containing a central timber-framed block of a single room on each floor with stair, with symmetrical extensions to the north (timber-framed, 18th century) and south (brick, 20th century), both colour washed with hip roofs. A 19th-century timber outshut runs along the north and west sides, with a 20th-century outshut along the rear west side.

The exterior is of two storeys. The front elevation has a centre block with exposed vertical studs containing no bracing, with a mixture of original ovolo mullioned windows and 20th-century wooden diamond-leaded casements. The framing shows the outline of a tripartite frieze window on the ground floor and a similar continuous window of five stepped units across the whole width on the first floor. The front door to the north end is 20th century, boarded with a central diamond light, and has a simple 20th-century gabled wooden porch. The principal chimney-stack to the rear is hidden by the higher roof. The two extensions have symmetrical ground and first-floor windows of 20th-century wooden casements with diamond lights.

The rear west elevation is entirely 20th century with the early block projecting in the centre, displaying its restored principal chimney-stack in red brick with stretcher bond. The continuous outshut has three sets of wooden casement windows with diamond lattice lights. Four dormers with similar windows light the first floor.

Internally, the ground-floor room of the centre block contains a large early 17th-century fireplace with a timber lintel at the rear. The outer oak framing employs some joints made particularly strongly with squint-shouldered tenons, as though to carry considerable weight. The floors have deep-set joists with diminished haunches. The building apparently had another storey above, as indicated by redundant peg holes in the top plates and the character of the joints in the binding joist of the upper-room ceiling. The north extension is framed in elm with floors at the same height as those in the centre block, and appears to be modelled on the earlier construction but uses more slender timber with primary bracing. The northwest lean-to is framed in inferior timber.

The building probably began as a hunting lodge or standing with necessary viewing windows. The top floor, now removed, may well have been partly open as a gallery to look over the ground dropping away to the southeast. A single ground-floor fireplace would have been adequate for such a use. The north extension may well be connected with a second purpose. In the partition wall between the entrance corridor and the ground-floor room are a series of large peg holes arranged in rows; further slots and holes occur on the front wall of the same room. Such patterns of holes are found fairly commonly in East Anglia and are thought to be for weaver's warping frames. The building may have served as a hunting lodge before becoming a large weaving shed, with the strong floors and good light making it most suitable for such a purpose. The top floor was probably removed when the building became a farm, and the 19th-century outshut was added at this time. Similar hunting standings occur at Chingford (Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge) and at Lodge Farm, Galleywood, on the other side of the Forest of Shenfield.