Cowhouse & Corn Store (including attached range to E.) at Brixton Farm

This is a mid-19th century farm building, constructed of rubble and originally roofed with asbestos. It is tall and long, with a whitewashed left end and rear elevation. The main range incorporates a stable on the left, a central transverse cowhouse with a feeding passage, a cartshed on the right, and a full-length hayloft above. The ground floor openings have brick voussoirs, with a round arched stable opening featuring a fanlight, square-headed cowhouse doorways, and a segmental cart entrance. Boarded doors are present throughout. Two small, round window openings ("portholes") with brick surrounds flank the central door, with larger "portholes" above. Eight brace plates, possibly originally tramway wheels, are visible. The loft door openings have been partially blocked, and an original winch remains. Pigeon boxes run along the full length, with six tiers at the left end, which features a rubble extension and a blocked former stable window. A single-storey rear extension provides access to the hayloft via boarded doors.

To the east of the main range is a lean-to extension, and a full-length tunnel passage for drainage enters the building near the left gable end and from the attached range. This passage is at a splayed angle and set back from the cowhouse. A two-storey range, slightly lower, is constructed of similar masonry, with a camber-headed doorway opening onto a former chaff room and a semicircular blocked doorway that formerly led to a stable. Above the doorway is a loft door. The right-hand gable end’s asymmetry is due to a later widening at the rear, indicated by a vertical masonry break and brick infill. Slit ventilators, and twin segmental cart openings are present at the end, with a broader similar opening in the extension below the recessed loft door.

The interior of the cowhouse is of particular interest due to its segmentally vaulted brick construction. The stable on the left is also separately vaulted. The cowhouse’s continuous vault incorporates triangular-shaped punched ventilators, while the cartshed is transversely vaulted. The hayloft above features a ten-bay roof with A-frame trusses and overlapping purlins. A long boarded threshing floor remains, along with threshing and winnowing machinery. A corn store was originally located at the right end, with a chute leading to the chaff room below in the attached range. The right-hand end of this range is now used as a cowhouse but originally included a wheel pit with a water wheel supplied by ponds to the east; the water wheel remains on the farm.