Wych Tree Farmhouse Keysoe

Wych Tree Farmhouse March 2016

Wych Tree 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 cebtury and it is timber-framed, faced with pebbledash, with an old clay tiled roof. It is built in a T-plan, the main block comprising one storey and attics and the cross-wing two storeys. The listing reckons that the two blocks are probably of different dates because the main block’s roof level changes near the join with the cross-wing.

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/H41/26] found that it was owned by W Felts and occupied by W W Felts, it comprised 27 acres. Water came from ponds. The valuer’s colleague commented: “Lettable. Not good Farmer. House good, homestead fair”.

The farmhouse contained a parlour, a living room, a kitchen and scullery and a dairy with three bedrooms upstairs (“one was maid’s”). The homestead comprised a hen house, two piggeries, a barn, a large loose box, a cow house for four beasts, a calf pen, a stable for two horses and a mixing house.