Monument record 1563900000 - Bottlehouse Farm, Whaddon

Historic building recording of farm buildings at Bottlehouse Farm by Savills in January 2025 concluded that the farm was built, possibly as a model farm, sometime between 1844 and 1880, and probably before 1873, with the current farmhouse built sometime between 1880 and 1898. The 1880 first edition 25-inch OS map shows the farm buildings arranged on four sides around a large central rectangular yard, with an entrance at the middle of the south side, and two smaller secondary yards to the southeast, which had open-fronted building ranges along the northeast and southeast sides, possibly cart sheds. A detached farm building lay south of the main complex, and a pair of cottages flanked the entrance to the farmyard from Shenley Road. The 1898 second edition 25-inch OS map shows the footprint of the farmyard buildings and cottages was unchanged, although the present farmhouse had been built to the west of the farmyard within its own grounds, rather than integrated with the yard, providing the tenant farmer’s household with a dignified separation from the farming activities. A new enclosure to the east of the farmstead may have been a paddock for the farm horses stabled at the farm. The 1923 OS 25-inch map shows that the pair of cottages flanking the entrance to the farmyard had been demolished by that time although the footprint of the farmyard buildings otherwise unchanged.
The farmyard was altered heavily during the mid-to-late twentieth century with the demolition of most of the specialised Victorian buildings at Bottlehouse Farm. The OS 6-inch map of 1950 shows this process of modernisation underway, with the south range of the quadrangle, the southeast building ranges and the detatched farm building demolished, while metal sheds had been added to the north. The 1970 1:2500 OS map shows further alterations in more detail. Two sides of the main quadrangle had been demolished by this date, with an additional range built down the middle. The secondary yard to the southeast had been contained inside a structure, probably a tin-roofed covered yard. The existing parallel rows of portalframed sheds had been added to the north, and a further detached building to the northwest. Since 1970, the range down the middle of the former main yard has been demolished, and this space is now occupied by a single, modern portal-framed shed. Further large modern detached sheds have been built to the north and northeast.
As a result of these changes in the twentieth century, just a single range of brick buildings that formed part of the northeast side of the farmyard and the farmhouse, is all that remains of the Victorian farm buildings. The surviving range of farm buildings running northwest to southeast is of a single room depth, each space accessed externally, with variations in width: the deepest part is at the west end and of two two storeys, the rest of the range is single storey, narrowing slightly in the middle, and narrowing towards the east end. The two storey section has red brick walling, laid in English bond, but above about two metres in height it is timber-framed and clad with weather boarding (patched in tongue-and-groove boarding), and is roofed with corrugated sheeting. Much of the north side is obscured by the brick wall of the abutting building, built of mid-twentieth century wire-cut bricks laid in English bond. At the west end of the south elevation is a standard-sized doorway, covered with modern tongue-and-groove boarding. In the centre of the south front is a wide doorway with a pair of tall doors, covered with tongue-and-groove boarding, with large metal hinges, and a concrete ramp below, showing a former use for vehicles. The western gable end shows that the nineteenth-century brick walling of about two metres height was heightened using wire-cut bricks in the mid-twentieth century, and two casement windows were inserted. Inside, the first floor is supported on a structure of iron girders. These variations in materials, the roof pitch and covering material being different from the rest of the building, suggest that this part may have been heightened in the mid-twentieth century, to accommodate vehicles or farm machinery. A sliding door on rails, separating the two internal spaces of this part of the building is also consistent with a mid-twentieth century date.
The single story part of the range to the east has red brick walling in English bond on the south side (the inner side of the former quadrangle) but with patches of infill and repair in Flemish bond and stretcher bond, partly rendered. On the east return wall and north side (the outer side of the former quadrangle), the brickwork is in Sussex bond. There is some lime mortar still visible, but most of the building has been repointed using Portland cement. Inside the lower part, the spaces are unfinished and were probably cattle sheds, now been used for storage. The undersides of the Welsh slates are visible, supported on common rafters with purlins, king post trusses between the bays, some with struts, and hipped corners around the gables where the east ranges of the two yards formerly connected. Internal partitions between bays are walls of half or single brick thickness, in stretcher or facing bond. Two bays with arched openings may originally have been cart sheds. Three bays at the east end have cobbled flooring, the rest of the building has concrete flooring. Two of the bays have feeding troughs, probably inserted in the late-nineteenth or early-twentieth century. The south side of the building has timber doors, some externally covered with chipboard, and some openings blocked with timber weather boarding. The gables where the demolished ranges previously connected, are now infilled with weather boarding. On the north side of the building are two inserted openings, one fitted with a sheet metal gate. The pitched roofs are covered with Welsh slates. A low wall runs along the east side of the former quadrangle, the brickwork mostly in stretcher bond and probably built using bricks salvaged from the demolished buildings after 1970.
The recorded building is part of one side of a quadrangular farmyard, originally built between 1844 and 1873, however the loss of more than three quarters of the Victorian buildings at Bottlehouse Farm and extensive repair and rebuilding hinders the interpretation of the specialised functions of parts of the farmstead. See report for detail (B1).