A Farm Buildings Survey in Plaxtol Parish
A Farm Buildings Survey in Plaxtol Parish
By Mollie Lewis & Jayne Semple
The Plaxtol Farm Buildings Survey was carried out in 1979 and 1980 for the Kent Historic Buildings Committee as a pilot scheme for surveying all the farm buildings in Kent.
The Parish had 29 identifiable farms, 14 ex-farms (now houses with no remaining farm buildings), and eight oast houses converted into homes. Only one farmer refused us access, and we are grateful for all the help and interest shown to us by everyone else. When asking permission of the farmers to visit, it is as well to impress on them that the survey is being made for historical purposes only, as some seemed to be anxious in case a preservation order might be clapped on something they were planning to demolish.
We also poached two farms across the parish border into Shipbourne. One was the Home Farm to Fairlawn, which we justified on the grounds that Fairlawn mansion is in Plaxtol. The other was the subject of planning permission rumors, and we thought we had better do it while it was still in existence.
Even in the three years that have elapsed since we recorded our buildings, many changes have occurred to make us glad that we did our survey when we did and no later. The roof of one of our oldest oast and storage complexes has partially collapsed, and planning permission has been granted to convert it into a residence. Our best range of hop-pickers' huts, converted from an old stockyard, is now difficult to access as it has been rented for the keeping of geese, and there, too, the roof is collapsing.
Changes of ownership have occurred which would have made life more difficult for the would-be recorder. A rich overseas property company has bought Fairlawn and Broadfield, both particularly interesting farms. Heavy investment in improvements has obliterated features of interest, such as the railway lines that moved the dung from cow-shed to dung pit at Fairlawn. The covered dung pit itself has vanished from the main farmyard, a victim of concreting in the name of efficiency.
Our only listed farm building, Dux Farm barn, a Grade II double-aisled barn, is showing signs of decay. The north aisle has moved off the aisle posts by four inches, and only an electric power distribution pole appears to be holding it up.
These points are made to encourage people who are thinking of surveying the farm buildings of their parish. Please do it today. There may be nothing to record tomorrow, and with the big institutions investing so heavily in farmland, today's friendly farmer who invites you in may be replaced by an anonymous non-resident corporation who may not let you in at all.
In our parish, we worked as a team of two which seemed an ideal number, one person to observe the relevant features and the other to write them down in rough, to be transferred onto the forms later. Several teams of two would, of course, be better if available as the survey could then be completed in less time. We took with us a rough sketch plan made from the Ordnance Survey map, and we also found it useful to have a camera, sketchbook, torch, measure, compass, and short ladder. Wellingtons were necessary "equipment" even in summer, as farmyards are excessively muddy places!
Farmhouses were recorded from the outside only, as directed, but often we were invited inside to have a look round, and many interesting features were recorded for our own village records.
Sixteen parishes are currently surveying, or are about to begin. They are: Aldington, Bromley, Canterbury area, East Peckham, Eynsford, Hadlow, Halstead, Hever, Hildenborough, Meopham, Offham, Otford, Shoreham, St. Michael's Tenterden, Southborough, and all Thanet parishes. It may encourage some people to begin if they know others in their area have started.
Don't be intimidated by the thought that you don't know enough about architecture. The forms are easy to fill in, and guidance is given in Ken Gravett's accompanying booklet. Other useful books to read are:
Barley, M.W., The English Farmhouse and Cottage
Brunskill, R. W., Illustrated History of Vernacular Architecture
Brunskill, R.W., Traditional Farm Buildings
Harris R.H., Discovering Timber-Framed Buildings
Weller, J., History of the Farmstead.
If you volunteer to do a survey, your reward will be in knowing your parish intimately by the end of the exercise.
Ed. For further details of surveys, please contact:-
Mr Gerald Winzar, Secretary, Kent Historic Buildings Committee.