Description

1220/0/10011
04-AUG-03

WINGFIELD
Long barn with fold yards and cartshed/granary with other outbuildings at Wingfield Castle Farm

GV
II

Long barn with fold yards and cartshed/granary with other outbuildings. c.1550 and later C19. Red brick and timber-framed with weatherboarding. Pantile roofs. Long barn of 11 bays has 3 fold yards and ancillary buildings projecting southwards and a further outbuilding on the east end. The mid C16 barn has a ground floor underbuilt in brick in the later C19 when the main posts were probably cut, but retains the first floor of close-studded timber-frame with mid rail, jowled posts, wall plates and tie beams. Some curved and cranked wind bracing remains. The end bays are floored and were originally probably for stabling on the ground floor. Most of the main frame is of chamfered timbers with ogee stops and is very similar to the framing in the residential range of the adjacent Wingfield Castle (q.v.), which was built shortly after 1544. The roof is later C19 as are the rest of the buildings. Standing south of the fold yards is the 3-bay cartshed with granary over and a further single-storey outbuilding attached to east.
These C16 and C19 farm buildings are of special interest in themselves and form part of a very significant group both visually and historically with Wingfield Castle which stands close by to the northwest. The barn is almost certainly contemporary with the Tudor part which was built by Sir Henry Jerningham shortly after he was granted the castle in 1544. This unusually long barn must have been the principal estate farm barn and the framing is of the high quality which one would associate with such a barn.
The main barn with the survival of the whole first floor of fine framing of the main estate barn of the Jerninghams and the C19 attached fold yards and adjacent cartshed/granary building make up with it a good example of a later C19 farmstead as well. The buildings are of special architectural and historic interest and are part of a very significant group.
The group value with the Castle is very significant both visually, since these buildings have a close visual relationship, and historically. The group makes up part of the early Tudor estate complex resuscitated after the Jerninghams took over the estate following the fall of the de la Pole family (Earls of Suffolk) who built the castle in the late C14. The main barn of such an estate was normally sited where the present building stands to one side of the base court which in the case of Wingfield Castle was to the east away from the residential part of the castle which in the south-west corner.
In size the barn compares with the examples at Framsden hall (12 bays), Winston Hall Farm and Roydon Hall (10 bays). In date there is also the comparison with the barn at nearby Wingfield College (q.v.) dated to c.1527. Suffolk moated manors and their farmsteads are very important in a national context and the early Tudor period appears to be one of expanding crop volumes leading to large barns being built. This one is also of interest in that part was floored with probably stabling below.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26669939

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
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  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
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