Modern Farm

The current farm buildings are what remains of a mixed farm that over a number of years reduced its landholding and therefore its viability.

The estate that at one point comprised 125 acres was sold off in parts, firstly for gravel extraction and then for construction of the large warehouses to the west of the site.

During the 1950s to 1980s many temporary agricultural structures such as corrugated steel and asbestos barns and four circular grain silos were erected.

These have been recorded and removed to create space for the new countywide Archaeological Archive Resource Centre.

The nature of farming undertaken has changed over the years and buildings have been reused repeatedly. If you look at the walls of some of the buildings, you will see blocked doors and windows as the uses to which the farmer wanted to put them changed. The lower courtyard, for example, had workers cottages in it some of which were converted into garages in the twentieth century.
The land around the farm was used for a mixture of pasture for castle and ploughing for cereals.