Tidbury Green Farmhouse, Tidbury Green, Solihull

Summary

A farmhouse, dating originally from the C17, with alterations and remodelling in the C18 and C19; with attached outbuildings.

Description

A farmhouse, dating originally from the C17, with alterations and remodelling in the C18 and C19; with attached outbuildings.

MATERIALS: red brick, with plain clay tile roofs.

PLAN: the house is a slightly irregular rectangle on plan, formed from an L-shapedrange with a slightly later additional cross-wing set in the re-entrant angle. A cluster of outbuildings extends from the north-east corner of the house.

EXTERIOR: the house is of two storeys and attic, with a steeply-pitched roof and two cross-wings of different heights. The windows are in segmental-arched openings with brick voussoirs. The windows have largely been replaced in uPVC in the earlier openings. The main elevation is of three bays, with a wide, central entrance doorway of pegged timber, under a gabled timber canopy porch with pierced barge boards. To the right of the doorway is a three-light window, with a blocked, vertical window opening to the left. The first floor has three vertical windows. The floors are articulated by a three-course brick plat band which continues around the front range and its contemporary cross wing. The common rafter ends are exposed at the eaves. The steeply-pitched roof has rectangular brick stacks with brick offsets to both ends, that to the front slope set below the ridge, towards the eaves. The left-hand return has a three-light window to the ground floor below the plat band, with a vertical window above, and a course of brick cogging across the gable, in which is a square attic window. The cross wing extends to the left, with a window to each of the ground and first floors, that to the ground floor blocked and showing signs of more than one phase of alteration. The rear elevation is irregular: the full-height cross wing to the right has the continuing plat band dividing ground and first floors, and cogging across the gable; there is a three-light window to the ground floor with a blocked opening to the first floor, and a small square attic window in the gable. To the left is a catslide roof over the single-storey additional bay, which is gabled; it has windows to the ground floor and gable, in flat-headed openings. A tall brick stack with two offsets rises from the catslide roof, the chimney built partly externally; above this is a rectangular stack towards the ridge, which was rebuilt in the 1940s. In the re-entrant angle between the larger wing and the house is a brick lean-to porch added in the 1950s. The outbuildings extend to the left to the ground floor. The right-hand return is partly obscured by the cluster of outbuildings; there is a bricked-up window opening to the ground floor below the plat band; the first floor is blind, and there is a small attic window in the gable.

INTERIOR: the house has very large chamfered ceiling beams to the ground and first floors, and exposed joists to parts of the ground floor. The doors are a mixture of C18 plank and batten examples, and C19 four-panelled doors, set within pegged C18 or earlier doorways. The ground floor has a central hall, with a wide C18 entrance door, quarry tiled floor and a C18 plank and batten door to the C18 stair, which is enclosed with later timberwork. To either side are the principal rooms, that to the left with a 1950s tile fire surround and an internal chimney breast; the fireplace was added in the 1950s but it is probable that it uses an earlier opening which had been closed before the mid-C20. The room to the right is the former kitchen; it has a very large inglenook and deeply-chamfered ceiling beam which are indicative of a C17 date. The exposed ceiling beams are also chamfered. The inglenook, which has a large timber beam with a shallow, moulded shelf over, now houses a large late-C19 range. To its left is a small spice cupboard set in the rear wall. To the right is a very large bacon/smoking chamber, large enough to stand in, which can be accessed from inside the inglenook, and possibly via a cupboard in the wall to the right. To the rear, in the main range, is a semi-basement cellar with very large timbers, flagstone floor, and brick plinth with slate top running around three sides, a blocked opening to outside, and an opening to the northernmost room in the range, the dairy. This room has a brick-built arcaded plinth with a terracotta tiled work surface running around three sides, a terracotta tile floor, and a very large chamfered beam with exposed joists. The present kitchen, formerly the scullery, occupies the additional bay in the angle between the main range and the earlier cross wing. The room has a roughly-hewn, chamfered beam and a small fireplace in the SE corner.

The first floor landing gives access to the attic of the additional wing, now a bathroom, in which the chamfered purlins are exposed. The main range has two rooms. That to the right has a very large, roughly-hewn and partly chamfered beam with exposed joists. The chimney breast from the large inglenook below slopes up the side wall, with a small, faux fireplace opening with mosaic surround set towards one side. To the left of the chimney breast is a cupboard, which gives access to a very large chamber partly inside the chimneybreast, which has been interpreted as a priest hole, large enough to accommodate two people. To the right of the chimney breast is the likely location of an earlier winder stair from the ground floor. The room to the left in the main range has an ceiling beam with very steep chamfers; the ceiling has been boarded below the joists. There is a small corner fireplace on the external walls, with a semi-circular-headed grate and timber surround of the mid-C19.

A straight flight of possibly late C18 or early C19 stairs gives access to the attics from the centre of the main range. One of the purlins has been replaced but the two closed trusses survive. They are formed of very large tie beams, interrupted by wide doorways with heavy, pegged timber surrounds, with paired principal rafters, trenched purlins, queen posts, collars and yokes. All the rooms are plastered and limewashed, indicating that they were used for food storage. One of the attic rooms was formerly used as a cheese room, and has holes in the timbers of the roof structure for shelving. The floors have wide timber boarding.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES
To the rear of the house, close to the rear wall, is a brick-lined WELL. To the east of the house, attached at the north-east corner, is a cluster of outbuildings. These include a WASHHOUSE and PRIVY, both built in brick. The washhouse has plain clay tile to the northern roof slope, and Roman tiles to the south. The washhouse retains its brick-built boiler. The privy has a plain clay tile roof. Attached to the privy and washhouse is a brick KENNEL (now storage), with a low doorway. A further small, low KENNEL with a floor-level opening sits between the washhouse and the house.

Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the former implement shed to the south-west of the house is not of special architectural or historic interest and is not listed.

History

Tidbury Green Farm, a loose courtyard farm, has origins in the C17, and the current farmhouse dates originally from this period. It may have begun as a timber-framed house, in common with the majority of farms in the area, and later have been encased in brick; some of the internal joinery clearly dates from the C17, and there is evidence of timber framing with stone infill in the attics, but the exterior brickwork is indicative of a date in the late C18 or early C19, both stylistically and from the appearance of the bricks. The house underwent some updating internally in the C18 and the C19. The tithe map of 1840 shows the house, barn and a building on the site of the cowhouse, which follows the footprint of the existing building but with additions to the front at either end, not now extant. A row of pigsties with its attendant pens were added between 1884 and 1904, in which year it is shown for the first time on the 1:2500 Ordnance Survey. At this point, the farm, along with a number of others in the locality, was part of the estate of Henry Aylesbury Walker Aylesbury, who died in 1905, but whose estate was retained until the First World War. A large part of the estate was sold by auction in 1917, including Tidbury Green Farm, which was purchased by its tenant farmer. The farm buildings, which share an estate style, are shown on a plan accompanying the sales particulars, and described briefly: the house of brick and tile, with the rooms detailed, including an attic cheese room, outbuildings, well and garden; and the farm buildings, comprising a four-stall stable, double-bay barn, five-tie cowhouse and calf pen, seven-tie cowhouse, three pigsties and an implement shed. All these buildings survive today, though the former implement shed has been altered several times and now exists only as a roof over a series of brick piers, rather than the open-fronted shed shown on the 1917 plan and the earlier Ordnance Survey maps, which show that it had opposite sides infilled and opened at various times.

During the C20, some minor alterations were made to the buildings, including the insertion of a new ground-floor fireplace in the house, and some cosmetic changes, including the replacement of some of the windows in uPVC; and a shed was added extending at right angles from the long rear elevation of the barn. During the Second World War, a stray bomb landed to the east of the farm, causing the eastern gable end chimney to fall from the house; the apex of the gable and the stack were rebuilt. The farm remained in the same family’s ownership until the time of inspection in 2016.

Reasons for Listing

Tidbury Green Farmhouse is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: it is a good and substantially complete example of vernacular farm building whose function is clearly evident in its historic fabric;
* Group value:with a functionally-related group of farm buildings from an important period in the development of English agriculture;
* Historic interest: the farm buildings illustrate the character and development of regional farming traditions within the context of the overall national patterns in farming history;
* Rarity: the group is a reminder of the formerly agricultural nature of the West Midlands, prior to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution;
* Degree of survival: it survives very well with later alterations enhancing its interest.

External Links

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