NHER 45472 (Building record) - West Hall farm buildings

These farm buildings were previously recorded as part of NHER 15010.

Area enlarged to take in barns north of the river. This may be the site of the medieval manor (although evidence also given that present house to south is moated) that the wall of the tithe barn remains along the road and that the present barns incorporate 17th century buildings.
E. Rose (NLA), 19 November 1997.

1999. Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project. Buildings Survey.
(S1) suggests this was the site of the manor house given by Herbert de Losinga to the Priory of Norwich Cathedral in the early 12th century. Prior to 1631 the manor house had moved to the south of the river to occupy the site of the present West Hall Farmhouse. Major development of the farmyard took place between 1840 and 1880. The buildings were modernised in the 1960s. They are now being redeveloped as housing.
See (S2) and (S3) for more in depth discussion of the documentary evidence and building survey.
M. Dennis (NLA), 10 August 2006.

During 1999 the conversion of West Hall Farm to domestic usage allowed the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project to conduct a comprehensive programme of standing building recording in order to gain an insight into the developmental sequence of the farm yard. This work was complemented by a study of the cartographic depictions of the farmyard since 1631 and a series of test pits and trial trenches sited throughout the farm yard.
The conclusions of this work can be summarised as follows:
The cartographic record suggests that the earliest traces of buildings in the farmyard date from the late seventeenth century, although the vast majority of the buildings are of late nineteenth century date.
The standing building survey confirms the evidence of the maps, identifying one small stretch of seventeenth century wall, but demonstrates that most of the buildings date from the mid-nineteenth century with significant twentieth century alterations.
The archaelogical interventions demonstrated that the chalk bedrock is very near the surface within the farmyard and that the surface of the yard has been patched and resurfaced numerous times, with no significant archaeological survivals.
See (S4) in file.
D. Gurney (NLA), 22 December 2000.

December 2001.
In response to a project brief issued for an archaeological evaluation by trial trenching ahead of the extension of a building at West Hall Farm, Sedgeford Norfolk, a 13m long trench was opened by machine in December 2001. This trench demonstrated that the natural chalk bedrock is quite shallow in this area of the yard and that there are no significant archaeological deposits in the area. Indeed, the work suggests that the natural chalk formed a working surface for the yard, as overlying deposits appear to have been cleaned back to the natural in the relatively recent past, not least to lay a power cable, the trench for which is cut into the chalk.
See (S5) in file.
D. Gurney (NLA), 17 January 2001.