Barn And Cartshed At Clippings Green Farmhouse

Barn and Cartshed at Clippings Green Farmhouse, Mattishall

This is an 18th-century threshing barn with an attached cart shed, forming part of an evolved farmstead. The barn is a five-bay timber-framed structure built on a brick and flint plinth, with weatherboarded exterior walls and a pantiled roof. The south wall, which serves as the internal wall of the cart shed, is constructed of flint. Clay daub covers the internal walls. Lean-to structures are attached to the east and west elevations, and the cart shed opens to the east.

The barn's exterior is weatherboarded above the tall brick plinth. The south gable is weatherboarded above rendered and whitewashed walls. Two external posts do not align with the interior studding. Full-height timber doors on the east elevation are replacements; the original doors are preserved inside the west lean-to structure. A single central post on a concrete plinth supports the roof on the open side of the cart shed, with a hayloft window beneath its south gable.

The west lean-to structure adjoins the barn wall below its eaves. Its northern half is enclosed with brick walls; the southern end is open-sided with posts supporting the roof. The south wall is modern and the structure has been recently repaired.

Internally, the stud walls stand on a sill beam with curved down braces in the outer two bays and straight down braces at the end walls. Jowled posts support the wall plate, and braced tie beams and queen post roof. The tie beam between the two south bays has been repositioned, with an additional beam inserted to support the principal rafters, which form part of a 19th-century replacement roof. The rafters rest on a second wall plate raised above the original on a course of bricks. The west opening has been slightly reduced in width and height. Half the internal walls retain external weatherboarding; the remainder is covered in clay daub. The plinth contains unusually long and large bricks.

The cart shed has a plastered ceiling with a hay loft above. The enclosed section of the west lean-to contains breeze block pillars supporting the roof and breeze block subdivisions for animal housing. Its east wall, the external barn wall, is covered in wattle and clay daub.

Clippings Green Farm occupies a site with medieval origins, evidenced by three surviving arms of a medieval moat to the north of the present farmhouse. The current house represents a relocation from this earlier moated site and survives as a 16th-century core with 17th-century extensions and early 19th-century alterations. The 18th-century barn forms the west side of a loose courtyard plan; the remaining farm buildings appear to date to the 19th century. Ordnance Survey maps of 1883 and 1906 show further buildings, primarily additions to the east side of the barn, which have since been demolished. The surviving lean-to structures to the west and east, and the cart shed to the south, are recorded on these maps.

The barn survives substantially intact and is designated for its special historical and architectural interest as an example of an 18th-century threshing barn and for its group value with the Grade II listed farmhouse.