Historic farm buildings: constructing the evidence
This project was commissioned by English Heritage and undertaken by Peter Gaskell, Peter Bibby from Sheffield University and Bob Edwards from Forum Heritage. The aim of the project was to update the evidence base on the nature and extent of change taking place to the historic farm building resource. The resulting publication summarises the findings of three parallel pieces of desk-based research carried out by the members of the team and presents new information on the character of the historic farm building stock and its relationship to the broader landscape, the extent of conversion of historic barns to residential and business use, and additional information on the condition and re-use of listed farm buildings.
Using historic Ordnance Survey (OS) maps the ‘farmsteads and landscape’ project led by Bob Edwards has developed a Geographical Information System (GIS) based methodology for the rapid quantification of the number, form and distribution of historic farmsteads, out-farms and isolated farm buildings. It provides baseline data for the distribution and pattern of historic farmsteads during the late 19th century. The project also quantified the survival of farmsteads by comparing the historic maps with modern OS maps. The methodology has been used to gather baseline and change data for four counties: East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Staffordshire.
The ‘historic farm building photo survey’ led by Peter Gaskell analysed more than 16,000 photographs of listed farm buildings taken during the first few years of the 21st century as part of the nation-wide ‘Images of England’ photographic survey. The structure and condition of each building was recorded along with any clearly visible change of use. The research provides statistically robust estimates of adaptive re-use at a range of spatial scales (national, regional, Countryside Character Area, local authority district and for protected areas).
Peter Bibby led the ‘historic farmsteads: current role and context’ project, which investigated the current use of historic-farm properties using micro-scale land-use and economic activity information. The resulting data were used to determine the number and distribution of historic-farm-building conversions at a range of spatial scales. In contrast to the ‘historic farm building photo survey’ the work covered both listed and un-listed buildings.
