Building record 6655/1 - Weedon Lodge Farm

A mid-19th century range of farm buildings of a single phase. Possibly built as a model farm

{1} Weedon Lodge Farm is a very interesting range of buildings dating to the mid 19th century. The complex is a single phase build with a number of un-necessary and to some extent extravagant flourishes. The buildings were most likely built following up to date ideas for the period and has the appearance of a model farm and appears to have been an affluent farm at the time.

The size of the cart shed, six bays including a trap house or implement store and a granary the same size above indicates the farm was prosperous at the time with substantial harvests. Attached to the cart shed and granary is a range of cattle buildings, including a shelter shed and cow house/milking parlour indicating the farm was planned as a mixed farm. To the east is an extremely interesting mixed-use building housing stables, trap house, forge and pig sty, again further evidence that the farm was built following model farm ideas.

Weedon Lodge Farm was formerly part of the Thornton Brockhall Estate, Brockhall itself is located to the north east, some 2.5km north east of Weedon Bec. The earliest available reference to Weedon Lodge, including a cartographic representation is “A Plan of the Estate Belonging to Thomas Thornton Esq at Weedon” drawn by John Bosworth in 1777. The attached key identifies the area of Weedon Lodge farm as Lower Outwards and Upper Barn Grounds, although frustratingly un-named in the key it is likely that the parcel of land labelled No 6 including an “L” shaped range of buildings is Upper Barn, a precursor to Weedon Lodge. There is, however no evidence that Weedon Lodge Farm was in existence in the late 18th century.

In around 1828 a Map of the Estates Belonging to Thomas Allin & Elizabeth Daniel was produced, their estates were to the north of the Thornton Estate and the map includes some indication of occupiers of Weedon Lodge Farm. The map indicates that land belonging to Weedon Lodge Farm was, at the time occupied by a Thomas Goff, Kelly’s Post Office Directory of Bed’s, Buck’s, Camb’s, Hunt’s, Norfolk, Northant’s & Suffolk published in 1847 lists a John Goff, possibly a descendent of Thomas in Upper Weedon, however, no further detail is included. Kelly’s of 1854 lists John Goff as a butcher and farmer; it was common for the two trades to overlap at the time. In 1869 John Goff is again listed, however in this instance he is recorded as farmer and landowner of Lodge Farm and Wood Farm, it is unclear whether he owns both farms, or only one. The same entry again appears in Kelly’s Directory of 1877.

In 1890 Kelly’s lists a Joseph Sargeant as farmer and landowner at the Lodge, Upper Weedon, suggesting Weedon Lodge Farm had changed hands, and the description of Joseph as a landowner suggests the Lodge had also been sold by the Thornton Estate as well. The Allin and Daniel estate map recorded a Thomas Sargeant as occupying lands adjacent to Weedon Lodge in the early 19th century, it s likely that Joseph is a descendent of Thomas.

Kelly’s Directory of 1906 records the farm as Outwards Farm and occupied by George Goff, farmer and landowner, which somewhat contradicts some previous entries suggesting the farm had changed hands. George is likely to be a descendent of the earlier Goff’s recorded at the farm. George remained at Outwards for at least some 20 years; in 1920 the farm was recorded as being occupied by Robert Henry Coley. In 1925 David Wait, the great grandfather of the current owners, bought the farm. He is listed as A.H Wait in Kelly’s Directories throughout the 1920s and 1930s and the farm as Outwards Farm. It was only in the mid 1930s that the name Weedon Lodge Farm appears to have been formally adopted, despite it being used as early as 1885 by the Ordnance Survey and Lodge Farm being used as early as 1869.

<1> Archaeological Building Recording Services, 2016, An Archaeological Standing Building Survey: Weedon Lodge Farm, Everdon Road, Weedon, Northamptonshire, p.9 (Report). SNN110319.

<2> Crank, N. (Editor), 2017, South Midlands Archaeology (47), p. 35 (Journal). SNN111362.

Record last edited

Feb 26 2025 7:45PM