Home Farm Buildings

SE 86 NW 3/19

BIRDSALL MAIN STREET (east side) Birdsall Home Farm Buildings

GV II

Range of farm buildings including foldyards, dairy, barn, offices and implement shed. 1868. For Birdsall Estate. Limestone ashlar, Welsh slate, pantile and French tile roofs. Spinal range faces north and has barn to left, cross wing containing offices to centre and implement shed to right. Behind this range and running at right angles to it are 6 parallel adjoined ranges comprising 4 covered foldyards and 2 storage sheds. To the left of these and at right angles to them, is the dairy. Facade to yard: barn, to left, has 2 storeys, 3 first-floor openings. To left: a stable door and fixed window, both beneath elliptical relieving arch, and fixed window beneath keyed lintel. To right: tall double doors beneath elliptical arch. First floor: 2 pitching doors and a slatted opening. Central section breaks forward with gable end to yard. 2 storeys, 2 first-floor windows. Fixed windows throughout. Cruciform vent to gable end. Left return: brick lean- to extension not of special interest. Right return: 2 board doors, that to right under canted stone arch. Fixed windows throughout. Implement shed: 2 storeys, 9 first-floor windows. To left: keyed elliptical arch with double door, flanked by fixed windows. Centre: 5 elliptical arches on square piers. To right: board door and blocked window. First floor: boarded and slatted openings each with a divided overlight. Facade to Salents Lane: 6 gable ends, the second, fourth and fifth being taller and wider. Cruciform vents to gable ends throughout. First bay: rounded corner with overhang to left. Board door with fixed window to right. Second bay: double doors flanked by fixed windows all beneath elliptical arches. Small fixed window with stone lintel to right. Third bay: wide opening with massive stone lintel, now with C20 sliding doors, flanked by fixed windows. Fourth bay: elliptical arch, now with C20 sliding doors. Elliptical-arched window to right. Fifth bay as fourth with elements reversed. Sixth bay: doorway beneath stone lintel, now with C20 sliding door. Dairy to extreme right: single-storey with board door to left, C20 casement and 2 sliding doors to right. Hipped roof to left. These buildings were executed with money from the 1868 "Improvement Fund" which also covered a major drainage scheme for the Birdsall Estate. The covered foldyard is an early example of a type which had become common by the end of the century, and represents an early stage in the industrialisation of farming.

Listing NGR: SE8193565182