Ongar Park Hall Farm Buildings

Planned farmstead buildings dating to circa 1860-80, with remodelling circa 1883 by Primrose McConnell. Constructed of red brick with plain tile roofs. The farmstead was originally an arable farm, later remodelled as a dairy farm during McConnell’s tenancy from 1883 to 1905. It comprises a barn and cowhouse at the center, a cattle shelter on the east side, cowhouses on the south side, a shed and implement shed on the west side, and a range of stables to the north, with the medieval Ongar Park Hall nearby. The central cowhouse and barn feature a double-span roof with lean-tos on each side. The barn has large round-arch cartways in each end, the southern end of which has been blocked. A weatherboarded timber frame partition separates the barn from the cowhouse, and an inserted floor is present within the cowhouse. A dairy, built by McConnell, is incorporated into the south end, with a cowhouse range set at a right angle. The east side features a long, 12-bay open-fronted cattle shelter. The north stable range has a cross wing on the west end and a taller roof range on the east end, with garage doors inserted. In the northwest corner is a 3-bay open-fronted implement shed and attached store, with a detached, aisled shed featuring a hipped roof located to the south. The barn and a former cowhouse were rebuilt after a fire in 1898. Primrose McConnell (1856-1931) was a Scottish farmer and influential agriculturalist who wrote 'Agricultural Notebook', a standard work still in print.