MEM23143 - Barn Farm, Brendon (Building)

The farmstead is shown on the Brendon Tithe Map as a T shaped farmhouse with an attached L shaped set of farm buildings to the east. The frontage of the farmhouse and the attached building was on the same alignment. This layout is repeated on the 1st Edition map; however, by the time the 2nd Edition map had been published the original farm building had apparently been demolished and rebuilt on a slightly different alignment, so that the frontage was more square to the road. This frontage has a gable extending out towards the road and a small extension to the rear. The layout of the farmstead seems little changed since this date. [1-4] The farmstead was visited in January 1997. The house was described as Edwardian and suburban, sitting next to the yard. The farm buildings were said to be in the form of L shaped ranges, obviously ancient, interesting and very attractive. They were possibly thought to be 17th Century in part and built of stone rubble with roofs in slate and corrugated iron. [5] The Ordnance Survey map for 1889 [2] shows the barns with the farmhouse with a rear projecting wing extending to the south west of the same alignment. By the 1904 map [3], this earlier farmhouse had been replaced by the building still standing in 2006. A deed relating to `Leeford Cottage', presumably the dwelling identified on the 1889 map, which dates the barns to before 1721, though the source or provenance of the document isn't clear. The entire range of buildings are in the local vernacular style using local constructed of sandstone rubble, randomly coursed. They are modest architecturally. The three earlier ranges are all clad in corrugated sheeting, the central barn retains small areas of its former combed wheat read thatch behind the sheeting. The threshing barn is clad in slate nailed to battens. The barns at Leeford are a multi phased set of agricultural buildings with at least four phases of construction and these are best described chronologically from the earliest one which is to the west, nearest the house. Phase 1. Possibly a former longhouse shippon (cattle shed, or cow house), and of late 17th Century date, this is of broadly one long bay, terminated by a former gable wall with a large opening to ground floor and a pitching door above on the north elevation. Phase 2. The next bay, another shippon or animal house, probably 18th Century, is plain, with two doors to the ground floor. Phase 3. The eastern bay, probably later 18th Century and possibly stabling, is of `L' shaped plan, and extends one bay east then returns south by two bays. The north elevation has one door opening at ground floor, while the returning east elevation has a small window and a larger blocked opening at ground floor with a pitching door at first floor. Phase 4. The last element of the group continues south and is a threshing barn almost certainly of mid 19th Century date. A long range with an off set pair of threshing doors in the east elevation (map evidence shows a horse engine house immediately adjacent here) and a single door and later lean to extension (not on 1904 map [3]) to the west. On the west wall, in situ behind the lean to, is a threshing machine in excellent condition with pulley gear intact; there is no manufacturer's plate. [6] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [7]