Historic Development Of UK’s Farmsteads
A short insight into the Britain’s agricultural building stock, their heritage value and their future uses.
When recently developing the design for a Paragraph 79 project in Yorkshire we spent some time researching agricultural architecture and the spacial arrangements they take on. As a practice that designs residential homes in country settings we have come to notice just how many farmsteads there is across our countryside, many of which are historic. Many of today’s farmsteads date from the Agricultural Revolution and make significant contributions to rural architectural character. Their farmhouses would traditionally be set in a small plot of land, surrounded by arable fields. For practicalities of access, the house would be set slightly back from its access road.
As farm infrastructure has developed over time, farmsteads have developed with additional buildings being introduced in the form of ancillary barns and outhouses, each aiding the function of the farm. As can be seen through precedents across the UK it is most common for the ancillary buildings to be set back behind the line of the farmhouse. With rural countryside providing its backdrop, a cluster of single-storey structures of thin timber/ metal clad walls lightly supporting a shallow-pitch, corrugated metal roof with low projecting eaves, make up the look of the typical ancillary buildings that sporadically embellish our countryside today. Their submissive position and modest architectural language speak of one appropriately subordinate to its principal neighbour.
Traditional farmsteads and their buildings are heritage assets which, through all types of use, make a significant contribution to the local character, distinctiveness, communities and economies of rural areas. Future change including conversion to new uses is inevitable, as they continue to fall out of farming use.
If you have an agricultural building that needs repair work or you are considering changing its use, please give us a call. You can also view our heritage work which explains more about working with old buildings, or click here for further information on how to build in countryside settings.
Image: A layout study of nearby farmsteads for one of our Paragraph 79 project in Yorkshire.
Tags: agricultural architecture; barn conversions; cottage architecture; Paragraph 79; homes in the countryside; heritage projects; historic architecture
