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Summary

Post-medieval farmstead with medieval origins, replanned in the 19th century

Monument Types

• FARMSTEAD (Post Medieval - 1501 AD to 1900 AD)
• MODEL FARM (Post Medieval - 1501 AD to 1900 AD)

Full description

Walkern Park Farm is shown on the later 19th century OS maps <1, 2> as a planned farmstead, 'Walkern Park', of earlier 19th century appearance. The house and its garden lie east of a rectangular arrangement of barns and sheds around and within a compartmented yard, with access track around the outside. To the north are a large irregular pond with a footbridge leading into a trapezoidal kitchen garden with paths and orchard trees. This layout has not altered a great deal since, although it has clearly been updated (and the kitchen garden removed), and none of the buildings are Listed.

However, this was in origin the lodge within a medieval deer park [9986], and the pond was a medieval moat [16424] around the lodge house. The farmstead is shown on the 1839 tithe map <3> before its transformation. An earlier farmhouse still stood within the moat, which was then more complete although the south arm and part of the eastern arm had been infilled. The farm buildings lay to the south and west. The 1878 map shows the old house still standing, with a new farmhouse just to its south and more of the moat infilled. A large barn on the western side of the farmstead survived within the new west range, but most of the other buildings had been replaced with the smart new layout and those on the eastern side had gone, replaced by an orchard. By 1898 the old farmhouse had been demolished and the orchard turned into a landscaped garden.

The deer park appears to have been disparked in the mid 17th century; in 1685 it was leased as 'a farmhouse called Walkern Lodge together with the barns, stables, buildings, lands, meadows and pastures' <4>. On the 1766 map <5> this was Walkern Hall; the present Walkern Hall [16425] is at Clay End 1.5km to the west, and only acquired the name in the 20th century.

<1> OS 25 inch map, 1st edition, 1878 (Cartographic material). SHT8116.

<2> OS 25 inch map, 2nd edition (1897-1901), 1898 (Cartographic material). SHT8113.

<3> Tithe map and award, Walkern, 1839 (map) (Cartographic material). SHT1377.

<4> Rowe, Anne, 2009, Medieval parks of Hertfordshire (Bibliographic reference). SHT6026.

<5> Dury & Andrews, 1766, A topographical map of Hartford-shire, from an actual survey… (Cartographic material). SHT3062.

Sources and further reading

Related records

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