WP 029 D - Bucks Head Farm - Enabling Works North Contract: Report for Historic Building and Setting Recording

COPA was commissioned by LM-JV to carry out historic building and setting recording prior to the partial demolition of a group of buildings at Bucks Head Farm, situated to the north of Rock Hill/Watling Street, in a central location between the settlements of Weeford and Hints and within the historic parish of Hints, District of Lichfield, Staffordshire. The farm is situated c. 6km to the south-east of Lichfield. This work was undertaken in accordance with a Location Specific Written Scheme of Investigation (LS-WSI) (Doc. No. 1EW04-LMJ-EV-MSTNS06_ NL16-029008 and a Recording and Works Method Statement (Doc. no: 1EW04- LMJDJV-EV-MST-NS06NL16-029004). COPA carried out an external and internal photographic survey of the buildings and their immediate setting. The building recording addresses a group of non-designated assets which date from the late 18th to early 19th century and are situated within an isolated position, accessed by a track leading eastwards from the course of Tamworth Road (centred on NGR: 418984, 296293). The buildings investigated within this current project comprise a total of twelve structures which form the complex of Bucks Head Farm. The farmstead is set out in a loose courtyard arrangement which is typical of the expansion of farmsteads during the 19th century which occurred in a piecemeal fashion with a lack of formal planning. The earliest buildings within the farmstead comprise the threshing barn (Building 7), the smithy (Building 10) and the western range of the farmhouse (Building 1) which date to the late-18th century. The threshing barn and smithy were formerly detached structures, situated to the west of the farmhouse. These buildings were incorporated into a C-shaped range of buildings, with the addition of a cow house to the east of the smithy, and a barn (Building 8) to the south, during the expansion of the farmstead over the course of the 19th century. The overall appearance of the farm buildings is typical of farmsteads within the non-upland areas of Staffordshire where red brick and plain clay tiles were dominant in the farm buildings of the 18th and 19th century. The inclusion of Staffordshire Blue bricks within a number of the farm buildings of Bucks Head Farm deviates from this typical character but suggests that from the mid-19th century there was expansion, rebuilding and reconstruction of buildings such as Building 2, a possible stables and cart shed and Building 3, a possible dairy, cart-shed and hay loft. This would accord with the general trends in the Staffordshire agricultural economy over the course of the 19th century, when there was widespread rebuilding as a result in the shift from arable to pastoral farming, in particular dairy farming.