Hillside Farm - 25 Campton Road Upper Gravenhurst

Hillside Farmhouse February 2016

Hillside Farmhouse was listed by English Heritage in January 1985 as Grade II, of special interest. The listing dates the property to the 16th century, making it the oldest secular building in the parish. It is timber-framed with colour-washed roughcast render and a clay tiled roof. It is built in a T-plan, the left-hand end is of two storeys with a jettied first floor (meaning that the first floor juts out over the ground floor), the right-hand block being of one storey and attics.

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 Hill Side Farm [DV1/C214/59] found that it was owned by F Stanghan and occupied by Reuben C Redman. The house stood on just over a rood and a half of land and rent was £32 per annum, with homestead and land. Accommodation comprised two living rooms, a kitchen, a scullery and three bedrooms. There was also an attic and an outhouse. The valuer commented: “Very old place”.

The farm was really a smallholding and the land contained 9.845 acres, roughly half-and-half arable and grass. The homestead comprised: two weather-boarded and tiled hen houses; a weather-boarded and tiled chaff house; a weather-boarded and tiled stable for two horses; a weather-boarded and tiled barn; three weather-boarded and tiled pigsties; a weather-boarded and corrugated iron loose box; a two-bay hovel; a two-bay cart shed and a weather-boarded and tiled loose box. The valuer commented: “Useful”.