Twentieth century granary stable, store and stable at Hill Farm, Southey Green (EHER 80496)

The buildings form an E-W aligned range, to the NE of the farmhouse, and comprise a two storey 20th century 'granary stable', store, stable and lean-to. The granary stable is a 20th century, two-storey, brick-built structure in the style of the Ripper carpentry company workers' houses. Abutting the West elevation is a brick built store, split in the East to form a fourth stable stall, and connected to the granary stable via an internal door. A lean-to at the Westernmost end may have been built to stable a donkey.

September 2011. Heritage assessment. The buildings form an E-W aligned range, to the NE of the farmhouse, and comprise a two storey 20th century 'granary stable', and an early 20th century store and stable. There is also a makeshift 20th century lean-to. 20th century granary stable. The granary is a 20th century, two-storey, brick-built structure with an early 20th century clay tiled roof and concrete rendering to the lower portion. The South elevation has two late 20th century stable doors and the eastern elevation has a high level door to the grain floor. On the NE corner is a large brick buttress made from a variety of red bricks which must have addressed a pronounced lean to the East at some point in the 20th century. The 20th century stable is built up against the West elevation. Inside, the ground floor is split into three stalls and paved with dark blue 110mm square engineering bricks. Stalls 1 and 2 also incorporate white, red and purple paviors set on edge, and arranged to form gulleys venting through the front wall. The building was used as a pig sty in the 20th century and there are floor level troughs and ‘Fordham Selfill’ water dispensers which were originally fed by galvanised steel pipes. The granary floor is a flat open space with a suspended timber floor. There are several hatches for chutes down into the rooms below and an open well for the loft ladder against the south wall. In the NW corner of the ground floor is part of a timber grain chute just below one of the trap doors. The room is devoid of fixings except the ladder. There is a ‘CDC Bentalls’ straw chopper (or chaff cutter)and the cast iron frame is secured with hex head bolts, dating it to the 20th century. The building is suspected to have been built after 1923 in the style of the workers houses built by Rippers, a large carpentry company. 20th century store and stables. A 20th century brick-built, single storey structure with a pitched roof clad in grey slate. The building is divided internally by a studwork partition to create a stable to the East and a large workshop or store to the West. The brickwork at the Western end is disrupted near the quoins and although is properly closed, looks as though it would have originally been open or had a timber framed wall. Abutting this elevation is a 20th century 'tin shack' outshut. The stable has a brick pavior floor very similar to stall 3 of the granary stable but the bricks are larger and there are no drainage gulleys. The room is connected to stall 1 through an inserted doorway. The store is a featureless room with a concrete floor. The stable has 20th century split stable doors, and the store has a single softwood door, marked 'Built June July 1904' written in pencil. There are several handwritten marks throughout the buildings including the date '1973' scratched into the wall beneath a shelf in the store. It is most likely these date the erection of the building and later the conversion to a grain store by lining it with asphalt sheets. 'A. Bonnet', a name scratched into the whitewash, may have done this work. Other graffiti provide details of produce. The 20th century lean-to. A makeshift shelter made of machined softwood clad with corrugated iron sheeting. The floor is concrete. The frame indicates there were once split stable doors, and nailed to the frame is a donkey horseshoe which may explain its original purpose. Now it is home to the farm cats. <1>