Sharnfold Farm Cartshed, Westham, East Sussex

Summary

Late C18 to early C19 cartshed, extended in the later C19 to form a stable to the south-east end.

Description

Late C18 to early C19 cartshed, extended in the later C19 to form a stable to the south-east end.

MATERIALS: the cartshed has a coursed flint wall supporting a clay-tiled, timber roof structure. The extension is constructed of mixed-stock brick under a slate-tile roof.

PLAN: a long linear structure running north-west to south-east, with the end two bays clad in timber-boarding to create store rooms. The late-C19 extension is at the south-eastern end (running south-west), and forms a separate store room (former stable).

EXTERIOR: the cartshed is predominantly open-sided to the north-east elevation and is formed of ten bays, delineated by square-cut timber posts. The base of the posts rest on pyramidal stone pads with a pair of mid-post diagonal struts (some missing). At the top, short straight braces provide longitudinal support to a double wall plate. The posts are tenoned into both wall plates, supporting the pitched, clay-tile roof. This is gable-ended to the north-west end and hipped to the south-east end. A flint wall with regular brick buttresses forms the south-west (rear) elevation, which has a central opening with vestigial timber door. The south-east end elevation also has a brick buttress and the walling has informal brick quoins to the right side and stone quoins to the left-hand side. The north-west end elevation is constructed of coursed flint with informal brick banding and brick/stone quoins to the right-hand side, and has a central high-set casement window.

The C19 extension is built of brick laid in Sussex bond to the principal south-east elevation and English bond to the side and rear. The openings are on the south-east elevation; a C19, planked stable door with strap hinges, a multi-paned casement window under a segmental brick-arch and a C20 planked door. The C20 roof is hipped to the west end and covered in slate tiles with a red clay ridge.

INTERIOR: the roof structure of the cartshed is constructed of square-cut timbers. Each bay has a cross tie beam, tenoned and strapped into the wall plate and supported by a straight brace. Above, collars support continuous purlins. Most of the joints are pegged as are the rafters where they join at the apex, and there is no ridge piece. The last two bays to either end are clad in timber boards to form a store room. Their timber-planked entrance doors appear to be C20. The floor across the cartshed is of packed earth.

The C19 extension has a machine-cut timber roof structure supported by two tie beams with tenoned fan struts and a collar. The common rafters are braced by continuous purlins and meet at a ridge piece. There are two C20 inserted roof lights.The brick walls are exposed and the floor is concrete.

History

The design of the cartshed at Sharnfold Farm indicates that it was built during the later C18 or early C19 with the absence of a ridge piece being an indicator, however local timber-framing practices sometimes continued after new national trends had been introduced. The flint walls combined with brick for quoins, dressings to windows and as banding within the flintwork are particularly characteristic of the C18 and early C19.

The 1-inch Ordnance Survey (OS) map of 1813, suggests that there were buildings at the location of Sharnfold Farm, but the scale is too small to identify their individual plans. The cartshed is however, clearly shown on the Tithe map of 1840. The first edition of the larger scale OS map (1874), shows two linear extensions the west side, at the south-western end, and by 1909, only the southern-most is shown.

The period between 1750 to 1880 was an important period of farm building development, enabled by the widespread adoption of improved grasses and winter feed-crops. The farmstead at Sharnfold is of the loose courtyard type and includes an adjacent threshing barn. This arrangement is characterised by working buildings located around the sides of the yard and is the dominant farmstead type in the south-east of England. These plans usually reflect a long process of piecemeal development with buildings of different dates, designs and materials, however the cartshed and barn are thought to have beeen built around the same time and represent the full extent of the historic farmstead. Historic mapping does not show any evidence of an adjacent farmhouse but a manor is recorded on the site up to around 1556. The site is therefore considered to of the rarer outfarm type.

Reasons for Listing

The former cartshed to Sharnfold Farm is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a good and potentially very rare example of a late C18 to early C19 cartshed in an outfarm setting, which through its size, demonstrates the scale of arable production at Sharnfold farm;
* for its timber roof structure, flint walling and characteristic red-brick detailing, all of which help illustrate regional building traditions;
* the cartshed retains a good amount of external and internal historic fabric, with later extension, and its original form remains clearly legible.

Historic interest:

* as a representative example of a cartshed built during the important English farming period of 1750 to 1880, which was enabled by the widespread adoption of improved grasses and winter feed-crops.

Group value:

* with the adjacent late C18 to early C19, threshing barn (Grade II).

External Links

Historic England Listing

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