Medieval to post-medieval lodge, Thaxted Lodge or Lodge Farm (EHER 49556)

A medieval to post-medieval lodge, first mentioned in 1730. From 1944, it was used as a rehabilitation farm for Jewish refugees.

Lodge Farm originally formed part of the largest park owned by the manor of Thaxted, known then as Southfirth and later The Great Park. The beginnings of this manor can be traced back to 1393 and it was the largest free estate within the manor of Thaxted. The manor and farm of Richmonds, which included a messuage called The Great Lodge, was held by the Beale family who sold it in May 1730 to Guys Hospital, London. A map survey in 1737 details the land of what was at that time known as Thaxted Lodge and Richmond farms which mirrors the boundary of the former Great Park. From this map we can see the outline of buildings and ponds on the present site of the farm yard at Lodge Farm including where the former lodge or farmhouse stood surrounded by a large moat which partly remains today as a ditch. In September 1944 Lodge Farm then 381 acres, or Thaxted Lodge as it was known, was purchased by the Bachad Fellowship, a Zionist group led by Arieh Handler who were responsible for saving the lives of many Jews persecuted by the Nazis. At Thaxted Lodge the fellowship established the Bachad Farm Institute, a hachsharah farm offering training in agriculture, engineering, home economics, Hebrew and Jewish religious studies to some of the thousands of young Jewish refugees displaced following WWII. The farm provided rehabilitation, opportunity and a course of direction for many still bearing physical and mental scars. <1>