Farmstead Types
The function of the farmstead was to provide shelter for farming families and the management and accommodation of livestock, the housing and processing of crops, the storage of vehicles, implements and fodder (hay and other feed for livestock). These functions were located in either specialist or combination structures or ranges, which display significant variation both over time and regionally (see Building Types).
All these buildings responded to the working areas within and around the farmstead and the farmhouse - trackways to surrounding fields and local markets, ponds and cart washes, the areas for the movement of vehicles and animals, the accommodation of animals and the platforms where hay and corn would be stacked, the latter prior to threshing in the barn. The size of the areas for stacking corn (known as rickyards or stackyards) varied according to local custom and the extent of arable crops kept on the farm. The house could be accessed through and face into the yard or it could be built or adapted to face away from the yard into its own private area, sometimes with a separate entrance.
The scale and form of farmstead types are subject to much variation and are closely related to farm size and status, terrain and land use - specifically in the way in which they served farms of either mixed, arable or pastoral types. It was far more common for the houses on farms in northern and western England to be attached to multifunctional ranges of farm buildings. By contrast, even small farms in the South East and East Anglia were characterised by detached houses and separate buildings, often loosely arranged around the sides of a yard. The basic types, all with many variations on these themes, are linear plans, parallel and L-shaped plans, dispersed plans, loose courtyard plans and regular courtyard plans.
 A Linear plan. House and farm building attached and in line.This is the plan form of the medieval longhouse but in upland areas of the country in particular it was used on small farmsteads up to the 19th century. B L-plan including the farmhouse. Such plans can be a development of a linear plan or can represent a small regular courtyard plan (see E–G, below). C Dispersed plan. Within this small hamlet the farm buildings of the two farmsteads are intermixed, with no evidence of planning in their layout or relationship to the farmhouses. Dispersed plans are also found on single farmsteads where the farm buildings are haphazardly arranged around the farmhouse. D Loose courtyard. Detached buildings arranged around a yard. In this example the yard is enclosed by agricultural buildings on all four sides with the farmhouse set to one side. On smaller farms the farmhouse may form one side of the yard, which may have agricultural buildings to only one or two of the remaining sides. E Regular courtyard L-plan.Two attached ranges form a regular L-shape. The farmhouse is detached from the agricultural buildings. F Regular courtyard U-plan.The yard, in this example divided into two parts, is framed by three connected ranges. Again, the farmhouse is detached. G Full regular courtyard.The yard is enclosed on all sides by buildings including, in this example, the farmhouse. Other examples are formed by agricultural buildings on all sides with the farmhouse built to one side. H Regular courtyard E-plan.This plan form (and variations of it with additional ranges) may be found on some of the larger planned farmsteads where livestock were a major part of the agricultural system. Cattle were housed in the arms of E the ‘back’ of which provided space for fodder storage and processing. Drawn by Stephen Dent © English Heritage |
Linear plans, where houses and farm buildings are attached, are ideally suited to small farms (usually stock rearing and dairying) and are concentrated in north and west England. They are an especially common feature in northern pastoral areas where little corn was grown and where cattle were housed indoors over the long winters (November to May). There was an obvious advantage in having cattle and their fodder (primarily hay) in one enclosed building. They display a wide range in scale, from large farmsteads of independent Pennine yeoman-farmers to the smallholdings of miner-farmers. They include laithe houses and longhouses.
They have often evolved as a result of gradual development, and will often be associated with loose scatters or yard arrangements of other farm buildings.
| An isolated linear farmstead standing within a landscape of regular fields bounded by dry stone walls and with scattered field barns. (Bowland Fells) © Countryside Agency / Mike Williams |
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| Although linear plan farmsteads are not common in the West Midlands, there are a small number of longhouses and later linear ranges such as this in-line house, barn cow house and stable, probably dating from the late 18th or early 19th century. (Oswestry Uplands) |  |
| A Linear farmstead (Yorkshire Dales) |  |
| An isolated linear farmstead standing within a landscape of regular fields bounded by dry stone walls and with scattered field barns. (Bowland Fells) © Countryside Agency / Mike Williams |
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| A variant bank barn (built across the slope) forming part of a linear farmstead in Weardale. Such linear ranges were typical of upland farms and farms where agriculture and industry were combined. (North Pennines) |  |
Parallel plans and L-shaped plans invariably enclose two sides of a yard, and often represent developments from earlier linear plans, if they have not been constructed in a single phase. L-shapes often evolve from the addition of a barn or byre to an original linear farm, or can represent the partial re-organisation of a dispersed plan. They are typically found on farms in the 50- to 150-acre bracket, and can be formal or highly irregular in appearance, with or without scatters of other farm buildings.
| An isometric view of an L-plan farmstead on the Cheshire Plain. (Shropshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire Plain) © English Heritage |
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Dispersed plans comprise clusters and unplanned groupings of separate buildings, sometimes intermixed with those of other farms. They range from those of hamlets where the buildings of different owners can be intermixed, to large-scale individual farmsteads. Some can be large-scale and high status.
| A large regular courtyard plan (North Northumberland Coastal Plain Character Area), dating from the early to mid-19th century and placed within a landscape affected by large-scale reorganisation and enclosure from the 18th century.This large farmstead was devoted to fatstock housing and incorporates three open yards lined with hemmels and a covered yard with a root store (left, with open doors).The farmstead also incorporated a stationary steam engine, which would have powered threshing machines, as well as fodder-preparation machines such as chaff cutters and cake breakers. Although rarely built to this scale in the Yorkshire and Humber Region, large regular courtyard farmsteads are concentrated in areas that were similarly affected by reorganisation such as the Yorkshire Wolds and on the Tabular |  |
| This reconstruction (not to scale) shows the flow of processes in the arable cycle from the stackyard (1), through the barn (2) to the granary (3), shelter shed (4), stable (5) and yard (6). © English Heritage (RCHME) |
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Loose courtyard plans, where the buildings are built around a yard with or without scatters of other farm buildings close by, became most strongly associated with large and/or arable farms. There are excavated and documented examples of this layout dating from the 13th century. The earliest surviving examples date from the 17th century.
| The flow of processes in a Cornish farmstead is shown here (not to scale).The buildings are grouped around a large yard.The proximity between the farmhouse and the pigsties and calf house is evident in this farmstead. (1) stackyard; (2) chall barn; (3) granary; (4) shippons ; (5) farmyard and midden; (6) calf house; (7) pigsties; (8) house and dairy. © English Heritage (RCHME) |
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| Shobrooke Barton, Devon (Devon Redlands). A characteristic scene in Devon with the barton or manor farm built around a courtyard located next to the parish church in a locally prominent position and isolated from other settlement. © Bob Edwards |
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Regular courtyard plans, where the various functions were carefully placed in relation to one another in order to minimise the waste of labour, and where the manure could be conserved, were recommended from the mid-18th century. The earliest surviving groups date from the 1790s. They are generally associated with holdings over 150 acres, and include the planned and model farms built for estates. The earlier examples are courtyard or U-plan with the barn forming the central block, and shelter sheds, stables and enclosed cow houses the two side wings. From the 1820s and 1830s, extra yards made E or even double-E plans.
| A large regular courtyard plan (North Northumberland Coastal Plain Character Area), dating from the early to mid-19th century and placed within a landscape affected by large-scale reorganisation and enclosure from the 18th century.This large farmstead was devoted to fatstock housing and incorporates three open yards lined with hemmels and a covered yard with a root store (left, with open doors).The farmstead also incorporated a stationary steam engine, which would have powered threshing machines, as well as fodder preparation machines such as chaff cutters and cake breakers. © English Heritage |
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| A regular courtyard farmstead, presenting typically blank elevations to the surrounding landscape (Howardian Hills) 328774 © Mr Chris Broadribb Taken as part of the Images of England Project |
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| Shelter sheds for cattle and large mixing barns were often combined to form E-plan yards in the mid-late 19th century (Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire Claylands). © Susanna Wade Martins |
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