Common Farmhouse Burgh St Margaret Fleggburgh Norfolk NHER: 42873 Fig. 1 General from south east Conservation-Based Research and Analysis Stephen Heywood FSA Historic Buildings Officer Historic Environment Service Uinion House Gressenhall Dereham Norfolk NR20 4DR 12 December 2012
Introduction Common farm is a compact farmstead next to Burgh Common. It is one of a line of farms on the slightly raised ground along the western edge of Filby Broad (Fig. 2). Common Farm Fig. 2. Early 20 th century Ordnance Survey The farm is at a distance from the road towards the common and the broad. The house is on the western edge of the farmstead and has an enclosed domestic garden to the west with the principal facade over it. (Fig. 3) Shelter sheds and loose boxes Barn House Cart Sheds Fig. 3 Detail of 2
The farmhouse has a complex history and much of the evidence has been lost through the many radical alterations and extensions that have taken place. However a few threads survive with which to speculate on a sequence of events. The plan with an off centre axial chimney stack and a doorway immediately in front of the stack reveals the typical post medieval East Anglian farmhouse and this is probably how it was intended to be from the first. It has a lobby and staircase beside the stack which was built to one side in order to accommodate them. The entrance and principal façade therefore was on the east side facing into the farmstead. The house is almost completely of red brick from different periods and for a large part this brick replaces a timber frame. The roof was of reed thatch but this was stripped away and replaced with a temporary roof of plastic and it now has a scaffolding with a corrugated iron flat roof ready to undertake repair. The walls have been stripped of plaster and many of the floorboards have been taken up. The principal timbers are all more or less intact as is the roof structure. The house in its present state is much longer than the original which was timberframed.. There is just one fragment of the south west corner post of this building (fig. 4). It is the corner post because a straight joint reveals that the brickwork to the south of it is an extension of the main block. Fig. 4. South west corner post. (Arrow to straight joint) This was the smaller room to the south side of the stack commonly called in 17 th - century probate inventories the parlour and was the more private room in the house.
The fragment of frame is probably of early 17 th century date and there are other features which are probably contemporary with it but the frame of which they were part has gone. The chimney stack is obviously contemporary and there is a fine moulded door frame with ovolo and wave mouldings which are of 17 th century date (Figs. 5 & 6). Figs 5 and 6. 17 th century doorway moved to centre of west façade. This fine doorway was almost certainly moved from the doorway into the lobby when, in the 18 th century, the principal façade shifted from the east side to the west. Another 17 th century feature of special interest are the two surviving transverse principal joists/ tie beams (Fig. 7). These timbers, to the hall side of the stack have chamfers with plain stops and they support the floor above. But in addition to this they are jointed to two pairs of upper crucks (fig. 8). These are curved timbers which are jointed to a collar beam at their top ends and to tie beams well below the level of the wall plate. At the bend in the timbers metal ties are attached to the wall plates. This is simply a device for having enough headroom in the upper storey. A tie beam in the conventional position would have been hopelessly impractical.
Fig. 7. One joist/tie Fig.8. The cruck
The upper cruck is a fairly typical 17 th -century type of truss usually in higher status buildings where the rafter element of the crucks are jointed to the principal rafter in very long mortises. It is especially common in the Row houses of Great Yarmouth. 1 The system here is a rustic version. In the early to mid 18 th century the timber fame was replaced with brick and as part of the same work it was extended to the north and provided with a gable-end stack. The pattern of straight joints suggests that this first phase of bricking-up involved just the area to the north of the stack and the west side of the parlour. Later, but still in the 18 th century the parlour was extended to the north. The window openings of the 18 th century phases have segmental arches (fig. 9). Fig. 9. Window in south gable-end Following the north and south extensions of the main block towards the end of the 18 th century, the entire roof structure was renewed and the wall tops levelled for the wall plates. The roof is a double roof with collars mortised to principal rafters and staggered wedge-tenoned butt purlins. It was at this time that the orientation of the facades was switched from east to west, a garden was created and the door frame moved. This switch enabled a lean-to extension on the east side at the parlour end. (fig. 10). It had a catslide roof which brought the eaves down to a Fig. 10. View from south east (1987) 1 See S Heywood, 3 Broad Row, Great Yarmouth, unpubl. NHER 42928
very low level. The addition also extended beyond the south gable-end and this happened before the production of the tithe map in 1838 (fig. 11). Fig. 11. Tithe map extract The area of poor, damaged, blocking brickwork corresponding to the lean-to suggests that the parlour wall was taken down almost completely to integrate the extra space. The remaining wall appears to have been supported on an inadequate beam and the wall quickly rebuilt. The extension was probably built in + or 1800 to provide for the subdivision of the house into two or more dwellings. Similarly, the surviving boarded partition towards the middle of the house belongs to this development (fig. 12). The soft wood partition Fig.12. North east part of softwood partition. is attached to the underside of one of the 17 th -century joist/ties mentioned above. It is of rebated boards with simple mouldings at the joins.
In the 19 th century gabled dormers were introduced and two to the west and one to the east survived into the 1980s (Fig.13). Fig.13. View from north west (1986) In more recent times a room was added to the west side of the house entered through the moulded doorway (Fig. 13). All traces of this has disappeared except for some of the plaster on the brick wall (fig. 5). The barn The barn is individually listed and had a collapse in recent years when the south gable came down (Fig. 14). This has been rebuilt without attempting to imitate the unusual tumbling-in which survives at the north gable-end (fig. 15). Fig.14. Collapsed gable of barn with surviving tumbling in.
The tumbling is continuous and there is honeycomb ventilation both indicative of early to mid 18 th century date. Fig. 15 North gable of Barn Conclusion The farmhouse has undergone a great deal of alteration and rebuilding and is for the most part an 18 th century farmhouse. However it retains parts of its previous existence as a smaller timber-framed lobby entrance type farmhouse - in particular the lobby, the stack and the winding stair beside the stack. It has interesting upper crucks and a fine moulded door frame. Details of the fenestration were difficult to see at time of survey but they clearly belong to the 18 th century and later. With the exception of the east wall corresponding to the parlour the building is without doubt reparable without a major loss of fabric and with retention of those features of particular interest. Stephen Heywood Historic Buildings Officer 13 th December 2012