Colchester Archaeological Trust

CAT Report 1131: summary

Historic building recording at Sturgeon’s Farm, Middle Green, Wakes Colne, Colchester CO6 2BN: May 2017
by Mark Baister

Date report completed: July 2017
Location: Sturgeon’s Farm, Middle Green, Wakes Colne, Colchester CO6 2BN
Map reference(s): TL 8907 3020
File size: kb
Project type: Historic Building Recording
Significance of the results:
Keywords:

Summary. A programme of historic building recording was carried out by Colchester Archaeological Trust at Sturgeon’s Farm, Middle Green, Wakes Colne, Colchester in May 2017. The small farm complex contained one, partially surviving, building dating from the 17th century, which was probably contemporary with the nearby listed farmhouse. This building was extended and re-roofed in the late 18th-early 19th century.

A mid 19th century addition to the complex was a threshing barn. It was built in a time period when mechanisation of threshing was becoming commonplace and the need for new threshing barns was rapidly dwindling. This suggests that at Wakes Colne, mechanisation was slow to take hold, and a continued supply of cheap farm labour meant that traditional methods of farming continued well into the ‘High Farming’ period of British agriculture.