Chillesford Lodge Model Farm

Chillesford Lodge Model Farm is a model farm built in 1875 for Sir Richard Wallace, Baronet, and designed by Frederick Barnes. It comprises a main complex of farm buildings and several detached structures.

The Main Complex

All buildings are constructed of red brick laid in either Flemish or English bond with yellow and dark red brick dressings. They have gabled or half-hipped roofs covered with tiles.

The main complex lies to the south of the coach house. Many buildings display the Wallace coat of arms and date plaques. The complex comprises three interconnected yards surrounded by single-storey brick sheds with two-storey corner turrets and taking-in doors at first-floor level. The north-east yard has been covered over, resulting in the demolition of the central thatched carthorse stable, which survives in the south-east yard. The sheds to the west, used as bull stalls with brick partitions, have a ten-bay barn to the rear with an attached engine house at its south end. The openings have shallow arched heads and casement windows of four or six panes. The turrets have recessed panel detailing at first-floor level, with timber boarded main doors on the external elevations and interior doors into the connecting sheds.

Some sheds retain fixtures and fittings from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Others have been remodelled for pig farming and have replacement roof structures.

Dairy

The dairy is located to the north of the main complex. It is a single-storey building with attic, containing a buttery and dairy in a polygonal room on the ground floor. It is constructed with red and yellow bricks laid in Flemish bond, and features diapering to the brickwork and roof tiles.

Exterior: The roof has a gable at the south end with a stack decorated with sunflowers, and a canted north end with a finial and louvred dormers above the dairy, each with hipped roofs and finials. The eaves are supported by carved brackets. The façade has a projecting porch with a sweeping half-hipped roof, decorative timber bargeboards and applied timberwork with diamond motifs to the upper storey, which oversails the entrance and is supported on timber posts with carved brackets. The pointed arched main door has blue brick dressings. A covered walkway to the right leads into the milking parlour, which abuts the south elevation. The north elevation comprises the canted roof over the dairy supported on carved timber beams and columns rising from a low wall with stone capping, creating an open verandah. One sash window at the rear appears to be later. Beyond are the inner walls of the dairy, with five sides defined by stone columns, each with three lancet windows. The rear elevation has an added outbuilding to the right of the open-sided entrance porch. The gablet of the porch is supported on carved timber columns on stone bases, with a decorative tie beam. As on the façade, the pointed arch door is set in a yellow brick panel with blue brick dressings. To the left is a tripartite window with three lancets, each with four plain glazes, and stone dressings. Above is decorative diaper work and, at attic level, a double casement window with leaded lights beneath a gablet.

Interior: The building is remarkably intact and is said to have been little used. An off-centre corridor gives access to the dairy to the left and the milkmaids' parlour to the right. The main door to the dairy has gauzed openings and the interior has delft and plain tiles to the walls and a tiled floor. The roof has a central octagonal opening, now blocked but perhaps once louvred. The lancet windows have diamond leaded lights and a central roundel near the apex. Secondary timberwork has been inserted for use as racking for game following disuse of the dairy. The milkmaids' parlour has a late 19th-century fireplace and grate, built-in cupboards and an enclosed stair to the attic where there are two rooms. The room above the parlour has two pointed arch windows and a fireplace with a plain surround. The room above the dairy has been modified to incorporate a water tank.

Milking Parlour

Adjoining the dairy to the south is the double-pile milking parlour. It is constructed of red brick with dark red-purple brick dressings and tiled gable roofs.

Exterior: The decorative gable ends to the west are in the Jacobean style, with stepped, curving copings of moulded brick surmounted by a closed pediment. At ground floor, a central opening has darker red brick dressings. To the left and right are wide openings with shallow arches, probably for the ingress and exit of cows, the lower part being blocked at a later date to form windows. In the centre of each apex is a wide window with a stone head and five lights with mullions. At the rear, the gable ends have large arched windows of 22 lights. The north elevation has a dentil cornice. Adjoining to the south are later cattle sheds of the early 20th century, replacing a later 19th-century structure. Their construction probably coincides with the blocking of the cattle entrances to the facades. These sheds have curved metal-framed roofs with corrugated metal coverings and are of little historic interest.

Interior: The milking parlour is now used for storage but retains some in situ pamment flooring and runnels and has an intact king-post roof.

Coach House

Opposite the lodge, across the main drive, is the L-shaped coach house with an enclosing wall to the south. It is of red brick laid in English bond, with tiled gable roofs, dentil cornices and dark red and blue brick dressings to the façade.

The main north-south range has a central pointed arch entrance door, above which is a clock and the Wallace coat of arms beneath a gablet. Flanking the door are twelve-light casements with elliptical arched heads. To the rear is a slate-roofed outshot with chimney. The east-west range has enlarged vehicle openings on the south elevation and gable end. The north elevation has an off-centre door with two sash windows to the east and a taking-in door beneath a dormer above. To the west of the dormer is a chimney. The rear elevation has a number of window openings and an enclosing wall. No interior inspection was carried out.

Barn

The two northernmost bays of the ten-bay barn have been remodelled, but the rest of the structure survives intact. The barn is of red brick with a pantile-covered gable roof.

Exterior: There are off-centre, full-height double doors to the east and west and six-light casement windows at ground and first floor. On the west elevation, there is a projecting weatherboarded taking-in structure with hoist, above a plank door entrance at ground floor. At the south end is a small engine house, with evidence of a steam engine replaced by the surviving 1936 machinery, extended in the 20th century to incorporate a saw-mill.

Interior: The barn has an intact king-post roof with some replaced rafters. On the first floor there are some in situ weatherboard partitions, line shafting and feed mill machinery.

Carthorse Stable

Located in the south-east yard is the carthorse stable, of elongated octagonal plan. It is constructed in panels of red brick laid in Flemish bond with a hipped thatched roof.

There are timber posts between the panels. The main entrance to the stable is on the south elevation where two large openings with battened timber doors lead into two separate stalls for Suffolk Punches. The roof has a king-post truss.

Granary

Located to the north of the yards, the granary has a cart shed at ground floor on the south elevation with a weatherboarded exterior to the first floor above. The west and east elevations are of brick, laid in English bond, both with a timber taking-in door at first floor and stairs at the east end. The north elevation is blind. The gable roof has a pantile covering. No interior inspection was carried out.

History

Chillesford Lodge was part of the Sudbourne Hall estate, granted in the 1590s by Queen Elizabeth I to Sir Michael Stanhope, one of her Privy Councillors. The estate ultimately passed to the Viscounts of Hereford, and in 1753 it was acquired by the Marquess of Hertford, in whose family the estate remained for some considerable time. Inherited in 1870 by General Francis Seymour, it was sold to his kinsman Richard Wallace (illegitimate son of the 4th Marquess of Hertford, and noted art collector) in 1871. He set about the renovation of Sudbourne Hall, employing Frederick Barnes, a noted Ipswich architect, to undertake the work, and proceeded to redevelop Chillesford Lodge from 1875. Although Wallace heavily invested in the estate, he sold it in the 1880s. After a number of owners, the estate passed to Joseph Watson, who was created Lord Manton in 1922. Chillesford Lodge was separated from the Sudbourne estate at that time, and continues to be owned by Lord Manton's descendants.