Monument record 1563801000 - Durrant's Yard, Grovehill Farm, Tingewick

Grovehill Farm appears to have been built about the mid-19th century on farmland awarded to Ambrose Durrant during Parliamentary Inclosure In 1773-1774. During the 19th century the Durrant family acquired further land to the east and west, and in the mid-19th century the enlarged, improved farm was provided with a planned rectilinear farmstead at its centre, and with two ‘outfarms’ (cattle/feed yards) within outer parts of the farm’s land to the northeast (known as Durrant's Yard) and to the west. The outfarm at Durrant's Yard is first shown on 1881 OS mapping as a small double yard, probably serving to provide winter shelter for animals and feeds within the northeastern parts of what was by the late 19th century a large farm. The buildings of the yard form a u-shaped regular plan, with a rectangular yard against the western boundary. The north and eastern range are shown as open-sided structures to the yard (probably cattle shelters), with a narrow rectangular range forming the southern side. Two further open-sided buildings are shown forming a second less formal yard to the south of the southern range, with a pump shown to the immediate south of the western building. The buildings are shown on historic maps until the mid-20th century and were partly ruinous by 1985 when the northern range is shown on APs without its roof in place. By 1988 only the north and west walls of the northern range are evident and the eastern and southern range (and its wings) had been demolished. The buildings were cleared between 1993 and 2003. In June 2022 the site is described as a small woodland glade surrounded to west, south and northeast by trees which have been planted and reached maturity since 1985. A low earth bank probably represents limestone demolition rubble from the southern range and the remains of the northern range consist of its northern wall (surviving to 1m height) and western wall (surviving to c 0.5m height). The walls are constructed of perforated (8 vertical hole) gault bricks, laid in Flemish bond, with shallow internal buttresses with bullnose corners. A date between 1850 and 1881 for construction of the outfarm buildings is suggested by the structural and mapping evidence. See report for detail (B1).