Building record MDR23138 - Outbuilding of Lodge Hill Farm, off Schoolpiece Lane, Church Boughton

Outbuilding of Lodge Hill Farm, off Schoolpiece Lane, Church Boughton, a late 19th century building. A building survey was carried out in 2017 and described the building as follows: '...This is a two-storey rectangular brick structure with a pitched roof with clay tiles and a brick dentil course below the eaves. It measures 4.4m by 12.2m and is orientated north - south. The principal facade faces the farmyard to the east with five openings at ground level and three windows above. The ground floor openings were originally full height doors with brick arched heads, however the second and fourth have been partially blocked with brick to form windows. The upper floor was accessed at either end either up an external flight of stairs to the north, or a ground level doorway in the south gable. The natural topography has enabled the building to be designed with split level access. The ground floor has been extensively remodelled, with the insertion of a concrete floor supported on RSJs and new rendered walls to form three separate spaces. It is however suggested that there were originally five timber stalls, each with an external access doorway to the east used as stabling. On the first floor there is a single open space where the roof is open to the underside of the rafters. The roof is supported upon softwood kingpost trusses, with iron bolts. Prior to the insertion of the concrete floor in the c1930s, it is likely that this room functioned as a hayloft with feeding hatches down to the stables on the floor below. Apart from the exposed trusses there are no historic features within the building. Date: c.1870, with modifications in the 1930s (floor and dividing walls). ...Building form and mass helping to define the west side of the farmyard; the structure still retains primary wall and roof fabric (Phase 1). ...Purpose built stable with hayloft above forming part of an enclosed farm courtyard c1870.' (1)