Building record 1796/2/1 - St Crispins Hospital Farm

St Crispin's Hospital Farm, Upton. Formerly known as Berrywood Farm. Northamptonshire County Asylum Farm; plans proposed 1875. Farm bailiff's house plans approved 1880.

{1} Farmhouse. 1876 extended late C19, with C20 alterations. Red brick, hipped slate roof, brick internal stacks. Central staircase plan. 2-storey, 3-window range. Central part-glazed door with flat-arched head. Sash windows to ground and first floors with similar heads.
Farm buildings. 1876 extended late C19 with other C19 and C20 alterations and additions. Red brick. Hipped slate roofs. One and 2 storeys. Ranged round yard to rear of hospital farmhouse (q.v.). Included for group value.

{4} The farm was an essential part of the hospital complex and can be viewed as expanding in line with the capacity and dietary requirements of the hospital. It was directlry adjacent to the Kent Road, allowing for easy access both from the hospital grounds and for deliveries and collections of produce. Within one year of building 70 out of 190 acres were under cultivation. The holdings in that year comprised 60 acres of grass and woodland with 133 acres of arable. As early as 1879 the financial viability of the farm was undergoing review; the builings were considered inadequate, giving rise to an expansion of the range of outbuildings. The farm complex latterly comprised grounds laid out to fruit trees, flowerbeds, greenhouses and extensive housing for livestock.
The additional function of the farm complex was as a form of treatment and exercise for the inmates, work which was found to be beneficial to them, and the practice was recommended elsewhere. It was not possible to ascertain the extent to which the complex was adapted to meet this requirement, due to the lack of original features, but it was likely that patient involvement was almost wholly within the fields.
The exterior of the farm buildings is predominantly red brick, with limited use of white washed rendering, wholly in keeping with the style of decoration evident across the complex. The use of stone window lintels and course of buff brick are evidence of this uniformity. The brick bond used is unusual, based on Flemish but with extra headers at each alternate occurrence, used throughout the farm complex, and also in the Old Laundry. This may have been a common practice as with other similar sites in the Midlands built in the same style eg Bantock House, Wolverhampton.
Space with the farm complex was fully utilised with an internal courtyard modified into a modern steel cowshed. The bailiff's farm cottages adjacent to the road and several farm buildings show clear evidence of rebuilds and reuse. Few rooms within the complex retain their original fixtures and fittings.

{6} Undated photo;

{7} The main farmhouse building is a two-storey red-brick structure with a hipped slate roof. It was extended in the late nineteenth century and also displays a number of twentieth-century alterations. The house survives in reasonable condition, although it has fallen into some disrepair. The farm buildings date from 1876, and were altered in the later nineteenth and twentieth century. The comprise both single and two-storey red-brick structures ranged around the yard to the rear of the farmhouse. They survive in reasonable condition.

{9} [SP7162060874] 1893 OS map 'Berrywood Farm'

{10} Assessed for Listing 1989 & 1997, not successful.

{11} Northamptonshire County Asylum built 1873-6 at Berrywood, later known as St Crispin's Hospital. It was recommended by the Commissioners in Lunacy Instructions 1870 (revised 1887) that "Farm buildings, with stables, etc. for visitors' horses should be provided". At Narborough farm buildings for market gardening as a daily work-therapy were provided.

{12} Approval given in Dec 1871 for a County Asylum, work only began in 1873; by April 1875 only part built. The same year plans for a gas works costing £2300 and a farm costing £2500 were approved. 1880 plans for a cottage for the farm bailiff were also proposed.

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 1/14 (unchecked) (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> Department of the Environment (DoE), 1976, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN3381.

<3> Thorne A.; Soden I., 2002, Desk-Based Survey Of St Crispin's Hospital, Upton, (unchecked) (Report). SNN105705.

<3> Thorne A., 2002, Desk-Based Survey Of St Crispin's Hospital, Upton, (unchecked) (Interim Report). SNN105876.

<4> Thorne L.; Lean S.; Harding J., 2003, Historic Buildings Recording of St Crispins Hospital, Upton, Northamptonshire (Illustrations), (checked) (Report). SNN103455.

<4> Thorne A.; Foard A.; Lean S., 2003, Historic Buildings Recording of St Crispins Hospital, Upton, Northamptonshire, 2002, (checked) (Report). SNN103454.

<5> Bond A., 1995, Thematic Survey of Planned and Model Farms: Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Gazetteer). SNN63075.

<6> Photographs of buildings in Upton (Photographs). SNN113623.

<7> Morton R., 2002, Princess Marina Hospital, Northampton: Desk-based Assessment, p.15 (checked) (Report). SNN107443.

<8> Beamish H., 2003, Proposed Link Road at Land North of Weedon Road Upton South West Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Report). SNN103242.

<9> Ordnance Survey Map (Scale/date), 1:2500 1893 (Map). SNN112944.

<10> ENGISH HERITAGE, English Heritage Listing File (Report). SNN111579.

<11> Harwood, E, The history and plan forms of purpose built lunatic asylums, with a study of their conservation and reuse : part I : the history and planforms of purpose-built lunatic asylums (Report). SNN114634.

<12> RCHME, RCHME NBR Index File, RCHME NBR 100438 'Northamptonshire County Asylum' (Archive). SNN113808.

<13> Historic England, Undated, ST CRISPINS HOSPITAL, DUNSTON, BF100438 (Archive). SNN114632.

Record last edited

Jun 5 2024 12:45PM