Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

A regular U-plan courtyard farmstead. It has a grain store which was a reassembled World War One airship shed (separately recorded at TQ 87 NW 1069), listed grade II.

Monument Types

• FARMSTEAD (Post Medieval to Modern - 1800 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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Type: Regular courtyard U-plan with detached elements
Farmhouse: Farmhouse detached in central position
Position: Isolated position
Survivial: No apparent alteration
New sheds: Large modern sheds built beside the historic farmstead, the farmstead could still be in use
Notes: cov yard
(1-2)

This feature is recorded in the English Heritage Historic Area Assessment for St Mary Hoo Parish. The report states: "Trackways led eastwards [from the Rectory] to the Moat or Spongs Farm...By the 1840s one individual William Fuller owned St Mary's Hall, Lowland Farm, Moat Farm, Hoppers Farm and Ross Farm. This estate was subsequently acquired by Ecclesiastical Commissioners (latterly the Church Commissioners). The farms were often managed by bailiffs and it was as a tenant that Henry Pye arrived at St Mary's Hall in 1851. He subsequently went on to lease Swigshole Farm, Ross Farm, Hoppers Farm and Fenn Street Farm (in St Mary Hoo parish) as well as Turkey Hall Farm and New Barn Farm (in Stoke Parish)…Around the 1870s Moat Farm (sometimes called Spongs Farm or Crevice Farm) was completely rebuilt…Moat Farm (previously known as Crevice or Spongs Farm) lies slightly to the east of the village, linked by an access road that replaced an older track across the fields. The farmstead is long established one but the present complex is entirely Victorian, probably rebuilt in the 1870s for the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. It contains a two-storey farmhouse, a pair of farm workers cottages and ranges of sheds and stables around a courtyard, built of pale yellow and yellow stock brick. This relatively well preserved group was given further interest when part of a World War One airship shed was reassembled here for use as a grain store (listed grade II) [see TQ 87 NW 1069]. This is formed of the canted roof of the timber-framed balloon store, clad in corrugated metal." (3)

<1> Forum Heritage Services, 2012, Kent Farmsteads & Landscape Project (Unpublished document). SKE18075.

<2> English Heritage, 2009, Historic Farmsteads: A Manual for Mapping (Unpublished document). SKE18076.

<3> historic england, 2014, Hoo Peninsula Outline Historic Area Assessment: St Mary Hoo Parish. Research Report 2014-52 (Bibliographic reference). SKE31593.

Sources and further reading