Farmsteads

New Approaches to Historic Farmsteads

Characterisation Team’s work on farmsteads has its origins in work being undertaken for the then Listing Team in the mid 1990s. Historic farmsteads and their buildings are a prominent contributor to regional distinctiveness and landscape, but there is far less information available at a landscape scale about farmsteads and their buildings than other aspects of the cultural landscape, such as settlement patterns, field systems and boundary features. This is of critical importance, as structural changes in the farming industry have hastened their wholesale redundancy and the decoupling of entire farmsteads from agricultural production. There is a strong demand for their conversion into other uses, overwhelmingly housing. Their future is largely dependent on finding a use for which they were not originally intended, and solutions lie far less in consideration of their merits as historic buildings alone, and increasingly as part of the wider landscape and the changing demography and structure of rural communities and economies.

Regional Farmstead Character

The combination of timber frame and brick, as here in the Forest of Arden, is a characteristic feature of the anciently-enclosed landscapes of the West Midlands. (c) Peter Gaskell. The Regional Farmstead Character Statements promote better and more accessible understanding of the character of farm buildings. They present for the first time in a single place information on farmstead buildings at a broad landscape and regional scale. The information they draw together will enable the farmsteads of each region to be better understood within a regional as well as a national context, in relation also to their surrounding fields and settlements. They also include summaries outlining the development of each of the 159 Joint Character Areas in England, which are now used as the targeting framework for the Agri-Environment Schemes as well as reporting on change in the countryside (see link to the Countryside Quality Counts project below). This is a first practical step in connecting the architectural and cultural view of landscape to other conservation-led perspectives. They are consultation documents and readers are invited to submit their comments.

Link to Preliminary Regional Farmstead Character Statements

Link to Countryside Quality Counts (CQC) project page

Link to external CQC website: www.cqc.org.uk

 

Farmsteads in the Landscape

Saddlescombe in the Sussex Downs, which mapping has demonstrated is a uniquely well-preserved example of a farmstead of this type in the southern English chalklands.  (c) Bob Edwards.The Hampshire and SE England Farmstead Character project: A Characterisation pilot project in Hampshire has comprised another key first step in demonstrating how evidence-based and character-based guidance can be taken up at local level, including the development of Historic Environment Records.

It was undertaken in 2004, and explored methods for interpreting the patterning of time-depth and farmstead character across the landscape. As a first step, descriptions relating to each of the Joint Character Areas and the county’s own landscape character areas and types were compiled. These outlined the character and landscape context of historic farmstead types and buildings, identified those features or elements that contribute to local distinctiveness and countryside character and produced good guidance and positive recommendations for enhancement based on this understanding.

These statements were further developed through consultation, reference to the county Historic Environment Record and by rapid field survey. Information about farmsteads was captured by plotting all farmstead sites – not just those with listed or recorded buildings - as a separate map layer in GIS so that they could be analysed in relationship to Landscape Character and Historic Landscape Character (HLC) areas. The Hampshire pilot has been extended across the rest of the county, taking 35 days to map over 5,000 farmsteads from First Edition maps to the present, and across Sussex and the High Weald AONB. The results of this work will be made available by spring 2007.

• Historic Farmsteads and Landscape Character in Hampshire - Part 1 (pdf 3.17MB)
• Historic Farmsteads and Landscape Character in Hampshire - Part 2 (pdf 5.20MB)
• Historic Farmsteads and Landscape Character in Hampshire - Part 3 (pdf 2.31MB)

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Main Conclusions

The Hampshire work has demonstrated that the dating and patterning of farmsteads in the landscape, and the rates of survival of different types of steading and building, is closely related to patterns of landscape character and type.  Further patterns were revealed which raise questions for future research for both landscapes and the built environment.  This has brought to the fore the importance of understanding the whole resource, not just what is listed or recorded, in order to enrich our understanding of buildings and landscapes. This understanding, besides informing the direction of future research, will help inform our understanding of the capacity of distinct farmstead types and their landscapes to absorb change, as recent work has shown that the adaptation of the existing building stock in rural areas – and especially in areas characterised by dispersed farmsteads and hamlets - is accounting for as much housing growth as in urban areas (Bibby 2006). This understanding of the historical patterning of the building stock, settlement and landscapes, combined with evolving patterns of live-work, will challenge some existing attitudes and policies but must inform an open debate about the future shape of our rural landscapes and communities.

For a report on the Hampshire pilot project, see:
Jeremy Lake and Bob Edwards, ‘New Approaches to Historic Farmsteads’, Landscape Character Network News, Issue 22 (Spring 2006)  – link to article www.landscapecharacter.org.uk
J. Lake and B. Edwards, ‘Farmsteads and Landscape: Towards an Integrated View’, Landscapes, 7.1 (2006), 1-36
See also P. Bibby, (2006) Land Use Change at the Urban: Rural Fringe and in the Wider Countryside. A report prepared for The Countryside Agency, University of Sheffield.

The results of all this work are now being used to inform the development of an image-based toolkit that can enable users to better understand key farmstead and building types in their landscape context, and make informed decisions about the options for the sustainable reuse of historic farm buildings. This will be developed and made open to consultation in 2007.

Policy Context - Farm building conversion

Farmstead characterisation has contributed to the development of new practical EH guidance on how to reuse farm buildings (see the link to Conversion of Traditional Farm Buildings: A Guide to Good Practice below), and it is now being used to develop new tools for land-use planning and environmental management that are informed by a clear understanding of local character and circumstances. Consultation and pilot work with key stakeholders has indicated that these should: 

• take account of the issues driving forward change, ranging from the demand for residential use to the restructuring of agricultural industry;
• promote positive  means of managing change which align an understanding of the characteristics of historic farmsteads with their potential for and sensitivity to change, at the building, farmstead and landscape scale;
• inform appropriate development through considering buildings as part of their wider landscapes, and within their regional and local context;
• emphasise the quality of traditional and contemporary design at the outset, including appropriate detailing, materials, craftsmanship and the setting of buildings;
• avoid the emphasis on designation as the key factor in allowing or preventing change of use;
• provide owners, planning officers and others with the confidence to make and present their own decisions.

Link to Conversion of Traditional Farm Buildings: A Guide to Good Practice

 

Policy Background

Audit report

Drebley in Wharfedale. Upland landscapes are poised for considerable change in the future.Designation excludes the vast majority of the total resource that can be defined as ‘historic’ or contributory to regional character and distinctiveness and, within a planning system that was designed to resist new development in the countryside, actually attracted conversion, often of poor quality. Such concerns drove the commissioning of the Historic Farmsteads: Audit and Evaluation project, commissioned from the University of Gloucestershire by English Heritage and the Countryside Agency (see the link to the Historic Farm Buildings: Constructing the Evidence Base below) which provided a valuable insight into the character of the listed resource, the pressures driving upon it and the effectiveness of current policy.

Link to Historic Farm Buildings: Constructing the Evidence Base

Constructing the evidence base

National planning policy has over the last decade moved from a policy advocating restraint on development in rural areas to the advancement of integrated economic, social and environmental objectives. It is now requiring local authorities to take a more flexible and positive approach to the sustainable reuse of redundant rural buildings, especially for economic use, and develop positive design policies based on a good understanding of local characteristics and objectives which  maintain and where possible enhance the quality, character and local distinctiveness of the rural environment. The Building the Evidence Base report has found that the majority of Regional and Local Planning Guidance, whilst addressing the issue of reuse, reflects limited knowledge of the nature and character of historic farmsteads, whether at a local scale or in their broader context. The appearance in 2005 of the new Agri-Environment Schemes, which fund farmers for the delivery of environmental benefits (historic as well as natural) has further driven the need for land management and the targeting of grant aid (including farm buildings) to be based on sound knowledge and an integrated understanding of the environmental, social and economic characteristics within an area.

Main conclusions

Limited knowledge of historic farmsteads in their broader context, and the lack of a consistent framework for understanding and valuing farmsteads and their buildings, was identified as the greatest obstacle to:

1. informing clear and transparent decision-making at a local scale;
2. informing determination of the most appropriate options for reuse;
3. identifying issues at the earliest possible stage relating to the impact of development on significance and character – pre-application discussion being a critical factor in progressing and determining planning applications;
4. the development of local plan policies for rural buildings that work from broad principles to detail;
5. informing consistent and evidence-based tools for use in development control and listed building consent;
6. the development of place-specific guidance based on character and context, as recommended in national planning policy (PPS1, 7 and 12) and in DCLG’s Design and Access Statements and related guidance by CABE;
7. the targeting of resources, including through the Higher Level Agri-Environment Schemes;
8. making the built environment part of the more integrated approaches to land management that are developing.

Living Buildings in a Living Landscape

These considerations have informed the recommendations for action made in the recently published joint English Heritage and Natural England policy on farm buildings, Living buildings in a living landscape: finding a future for traditional farm buildings. One key recommendation is that solutions must take account of regional and local diversity and circumstances - differences in patterns of settlement, redundancy, dereliction and conversion, and in farmstead and building character - and the implications this has in terms of strategies for re-use. The policy document, therefore, provides information on the drivers for change as well as illustrated 2-page summaries on the historical development and landscape context of farmstead buildings for each of the eight government regions outside London. These compress the information contained in the much larger Preliminary Regional Farmstead Character Statements.

Link to Living buildings in a living landscape: finding a future for traditional farm buildings (pdf 4MB) 

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