19th century outbuilding at Goodhall, Coggeshall Road (EHER 80399)

The late 19th century building has been described as a cart lodge, but is unlikely to have performed this function even in recent years. It was designed as a stable for working horses with an integral shelter-shed and was probably adapted to house cattle from the mid-20th century.

July 2013. Level 2 building survey. The outbuilding at Goodhall is a single-storied red-brick structure with a slate roof that extends to 21 m in length by 5.4 m in total width on an approximately east-west axis. Its walls rise to 2.4 m at their roof plates and are laid in Flemish bond, while the softwood roof consists of clasped-purlins with nailed collars and a ridge board. The softwood roof structure and brickwork of the structure is typical of the many new farm buildings erected across Essex and Suffolk during the second half of the 19th century in response to the new agricultural techniques of the period. It is shown on the Ordnance Survey of 1875 but not the tithe map of 1842 and would have been built in the 1860s or early 1870s. The building has been described as a cart lodge, but is unlikely to have performed this function even in recent years. It was designed as a stable for working horses with an integral shelter-shed and was probably adapted to house cattle from the mid-20th century. The former stable and shelter shed formed part of an integrated new complex of high quality farm buildings built at Goodhall between 1842 and 1875 as part of the agricultural revolution known as Victorian High Farming. Despite the widening of its entrance it survives largely unaltered, with its original proportions, slate roof, barred windows and evidence of unusual sliding shutters in two sections. After the demolition or extensive alteration of the other contemporary outbuildings on the site during the 1960s or 1970s it now represents the only evidence of the appearance and sophisticated nature of the Victorian farm, and is accordingly of considerable historic interest. <1>