Farmbuildings At White House Farm

Farmbuildings at White House Farm

Early-to-mid 19th-century farmbuildings at Oxborough, constructed from brick with some chalk clunch, including clunch to internal walls. Dog-tooth cornicing details the barn and lean-to structures, while dentilled cornicing appears on the shelter sheds. Gable ends display traditional tumbling-in with brick finials. All buildings have pantile roofs.

The complex is arranged around two yards: a north-facing rick yard separated by an east-west aligned barn from a south-facing stock yard. The rick yard is bounded by a clunch wall to the north and west, with an east-facing cartshed containing a granary above.

The cartshed spans six bays, its posts set on brick and reused stone bases. The granary above extends over four bays and is divided internally by a chalk wall with a loading hatch opening from the two northern bays to the roof space. A wide wooden staircase with blue brick bottom treads leads to the southernmost bay of the granary, where a book-keeper's hatch survives—an unusual feature. The granary interior retains a plastered ceiling and roof with collars morticed into principal rafters, queen struts and a single row of butt-wedged purlins; a king-post truss occupies the northern loading bay. Grain bins have been removed, though their back panels remain.

The barn contains two threshing bays with full-height planked doors to the north (with thresholds to the east) allowing loaded waggons entry from the rick yard, and lower arched doorways for empty waggons to exit into the fold yard. A later brick lean-to, probably built to house an oil engine, was added to the centre of the north wall; it is open-fronted with brick pillars and a belting hole to the barn. An integral lean-to in the centre of the south wall, probably originally built as stables, later contained a loose box with a central split door and loading hatches at each end. A further later wooden lean-to with wooden posts stands to the east of this structure.

The barn interior is lined with chalk clunch and divided in half by a later chalk wall, with a stone threshing floor surviving to the east. Machinery shafting runs along the south wall, likely installed by the 1870s. The roof is a king-post structure with pegged joints.

A stable stands to the east of the barn, constructed from chalk clunch with brick dressings and a lean-to hipped roof. Its south elevation features louvred lunette windows flanking a central door. The stable projects north from the barn, with this northern section comprising a chaff room (with an arched opening for pitching in chaff) and a harness room. Interior fittings have been removed, though lantern alcoves remain either side of the door.

An eastern range of shelter sheds runs the length of this side, supported on four brick pillars with later 19th-century infill creating loose boxes, and two loose boxes to the north end.

A western range stands in two sections divided by a later 19th-century covered entrance way, probably originally built as stock sheds with a pitching door on the west side to the south range and double doors on the west side to a northern trap house adjoining the barn. Most collars have been removed from the roof. A brick wall encloses the fold yard to the south.

White House Farm was part of the Bedingfield estate until its sale in the 1950s. The 17th-century house and farmbuildings are shown on Faden's map of 1797, positioned at the west end of the parish prior to the enclosure and drainage of pastures in the early 19th century. The barn, with its brick lean-to, is the earliest structure, its two threshing bays indicating the growing importance of grain production in what had previously been a sheep-producing area. Other farmbuildings date typologically to the first half of the 19th century, though tithe map evidence suggests they were not built until after 1845, representing increasing commercialisation and stock-fattening practices. These buildings constitute an unusual survival of an early-to-mid 19th-century farmstead of this type, erected following the enclosure of nearby commons and following a textbook plan with the rick yard bounded by an east-facing cartshed separated from the south-facing fold yard. The use of local brick and clunch represents a late example of vernacular tradition.