Barn And Adjoining Cattle Shelters And Loose Boxes Around Fold Yard To South At Cross House Farm

The barn and adjoining cattle shelters and loose boxes around the fold yard to the south at Cross House Farm date from the 18th century, with remodeling and extensions made around the mid-19th century. The barn is constructed of flint with brick dressings, while the other buildings are made of red Flemish bond brick, all topped with pantile roofs featuring gabled ends.

The barn has a three-bay layout, with a central threshing bay and opposing cart entrances. In the 19th century, it was remodeled and its roof was rebuilt, incorporating a midstrey and outshuts on the north side, as well as cattle shelters and loose boxes around the fold yard on the south side. The roof on the north side extends over the central midstrey, flanked by lower outshuts. On the south side, there is a catslide roof over an open-fronted cattle shelter, which includes an integral shed at the west end of the barn.

The cattle shelter faces a fold yard, with ranges of stables and other buildings on the east and west sides, and a wall with a central gateway on the west side. Inside the barn, there are blocked ventilation slits, large cart entrances with segmental arches (the south entrance is blocked), and a 19th-century queen-strut roof with collars and side purlins.

Cross House Farm is one of three farms within Earl Spencer's 3,000-acre North Creake estate. The third Earl Spencer (1782-1845) was the founder and first president of the Royal Agricultural Society and was a fellow agriculturalist and friend of Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester of Holkham nearby.