Little Farm Bolnhurst

 
Little Farmhouse February 2016

Little Farmhouse was listed by the former Department of Environment in August 1983 as Grade II, of special interest. The listing dates the building to the 17th century and it has colour-washed roughcast and brick over a timber frame with a thatched roof. It is built in an  L-plan and comprises one storey and attics.

In 1907 the lease of Walter Quenby was at an end and the owner, H J Sharman, leased the farm to Charles F Frossell [BML10/9/1-2]. The Rating and Valuation Act 1925 specified that every building and piece of land in the country was to be assessed to determine its rateable value. The valuer visiting the farm [DV1/H22/2] found it was still owned by H J Sharman. The tenant, William Swales, paid £90 per annum, a rent set in 1922. The previous rent, set in 1907, had been £70 per annum. The farm contained 105 acres, some of which was in the parish of Colmworth.

A colleague of the valuer noted: “Buildings fair only. A few onions in most fields. Does his land well. Rent about right”.

The farmhouse contained two reception rooms, a kitchen and a dairy with four bedrooms above. A coal shed and a privy were outside. The farm buildings, wood on brick foundations with tiled and corrugated iron roofs, comprised a number of groups:

• Left at the gate: a carpenter’s shop;
• In the main yard: a double calf box, a meal house, a loose box, a corn and chaff barn, another loose box, a two-bay open hovel, a calf box, a chaff house, a stable for three horses and a chaff bay;
• Behind the house: an open hovel for two cows and a calf box;
• In the stockyard: a three-bay cart shed; a chicken house and a four-bay open hovel;
• On the road: a garage and an implement house.