Late 18th century stables at Harps Farm (EHER 46773)

A late 18th century stable block at Harps Farm, that was recorded in 2008.

October 2008. Level 2 building survey. The core, earliest part of the stable block is the central part of the southern range, a timber framed loose-box built atop low ground walls with gabled ends and a boarded exterior. The north wall is half-rendered, and this may be the original finish. The original east wall was boarded from the ground to the apex of the gable and is still extant within later extensions. A ground-floor entrance in the east wall still exists. A door at eaves level indicates that there had been an upper floor more extensive than that currently present. It is tempting to describe the upper floor as a hay-loft. There is a building shown on Chapman and Andres’ plan of the area (1777), but of such a scale and lack of detail make this somewhat unclear. The large beams from a previous building in the principal structure of the loose-box could have derived from any of several sources: a previous timber framed building on the site may have been dismantled, or the timbers may have been purchased second-hand from any nearby farmstead or settlement. The re-use of many timbers in this building suggests that dendrochronological analysis of the major posts and tie-beams would not give a date for the construction of the earliest part of the building, only a date for the felling of the timbers prior to their initial use. The western block is added to the western end of the south block. There is a block shown here in the late 19th century Ordnance Survey maps, but this block with its concrete floors, smooth timbers and well-finished walls, appears to owe more to a 20th century rebuild than being of any great historical merit. The two central buildings in the yard to the north of the main buildings appear to be of modern date, as shown by their pre-cast concrete elements, and are not shown on plan until 1951. The courtyard plan of Harps Farm may owe its layout to both the practicalities of using a formerly enclosed area as well as developments in farming during the 18th century. The layout of farm buildings around a courtyard dominated by the farmhouse is a typical mid 18th century layout, keeping animal husbandry and storage in the same area. Such a farm would have been self-reliant on food crops for the livestock and thus manure for the fields too. The livestock needed to be situated close to the barn, since waste products such as straw and chaff would be used as bedding and feed. The stable block at Harps Farm can therefore be considered to owe some of its elements to advances in animal husbandry and farming theory in the late 18th century, some elements to Model Farm design, and some elements to more modern functional requirements. However, the layout of the whole farm complex may be considered to owe more to its origins as a medieval enclosed farmstead. <1>