MEM23759 - Monkham Farm (Building)

A farmstead is shown on the Tithe Map for Luxborough at SS 9772 3792. It comprises a farmhouse at SS 9769 3792 and three ranges of buildings arranged around a yard at SS 9770 3794, SS 9772 3791 and SS 9775 3793. The group is labelled 46, with various small enclosures around it, including one slightly off to the east at SS 9779 3788 and labelled 47. The Tithe Apportionment States this is Monkham Farm, owned by Anna Maria Beauge (a widow) and occupied by William Webber. Land parcel 46 is described as "House Barn Bartons etc" and 47 as "Garden". [1] It appears that the original group of farm buildings had been cleared and replaced by the time the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map was observed. The farmhouse had also been either subject to much alteration or demolished and rebuilt and had three small outbuildings arranged to its south and west (one of which, at SS 9771 3790, may incorporate fabric from one of the original demolished farm buildings). The new farm buildings created a more formal yard around SS 9773 3792, with a further small yard on its eastern side. The site is again labelled Monkham Farm. This arrangement is repeated on the 2nd Edition map. [2,3] Modern Ordnance Survey mapping appears to show the farmhouse in the same plan form as shown on the 1st Edition map, with two of the three outbuildings still surviving. However, the farmyard complex has been amalgamated inside a much larger agrigultural building. Aerial photographs dating from 2015 show a large structure with a common roof. It is possible that the buildings shown on the 1st Edition map have been incorporated into this larger building rather than knocked down and replaced but this requires verification. [4,5] The farmstead was visited in February 1997 as part of the Exmoor Farmsteads Survey. The house was said to appear Victorian in style but with a chimney breast that suggested an earlier date. The small outbuilding to the southeast of the front garden, which had a slate roof, included an oak mullioned window on its eastern elevation. A large stone wall to the east of this was possibly incorporated into a larger 20th Century shed. The site was noted to be "an old place". [6]