The Adair estate records give clear evidence of two farms on Redlingfield Green in the late 1800s, but an advert in the Ipswich Journal in January 1761 gave details of a 15-acre farm for sale in the occupation of William Browning situated on Redlingfield Green. So where were these three farms?

The 1884 Ordinance Survey Map very clearly shows the position of three farmsteads…

Firstly the 15-acre smallholding on the Green to the south of Horham Road. Secondly the farm referred to as Green Farm during the 1800s, to the north-east of the green and thirdly the farm sometimes referred to as the Horham Road Farm at the north-west.

It would appear that the farm advertised in Ipswich Journal was purchased by the Adair estate, because on their rental records of 1762 William Browning is paying a rent of £14 to the estate at a time when the farm rents were in the region of £1 per acre. By the time of the tithe apportionment in 1839 the farmhouse had been split into three farm labourer’s cottages and the land had been absorbed into the farm to the west of the green. The farm buildings and three cottages are shown on all maps into the 20th century and the residents of the cottages are all listed on the census and in fact there were still two families residing there in 1939. The whole farmstead has long since disappeared and the site is now covered with trees on the corner of the Horham Road opposite Pear Tree Cottages.

There is much more historical information to be found regarding the original Green Farm starting in 1798 when John Wilson paid £8.2.0 land tax. John Wilson was born in Redlingfield in 1772 the first- born son of Edward and Ann who had moved to Redlingfield from Worlingworth at about that time so did not appear on the list of rents paid in 1762 to the Adair estate. Edward Wilson was one of the two farmers eligible to vote in 1790 due to the fact that Edward owned 1 acre of land elsewhere in Redlingfield. The other tenant farmers farming larger farms in Redlingfield had no right to vote because they were not landowners! After Edward’s death in 1797 John farmed Green Farm until 1821 when an advert in Ipswich Journal advertised the sale of all his livestock and farm machinery. Another small item in the Suffolk Chronicle in April 1820 mentions that James Alward was acquitted of stealing a loaf of wheaten bread, the property of John Wilson of Redlingfield. The next tenant of Green Farm was George Cracknell the son of George Cracknell of Redlingfield Hall. He farmed there until his death at the age of only 53 due to injuries caused by falling out of his pony gig. The 1851 census shows that his widow Mary Ann was farming the land with the help of her 29-year-old son. In 1852 her daughter Betsy Rebecca married William Wardley who had been farming nearby on Redlingfield Road, Horham. By 1861 William was farming Green Farm with Mary Ann still living in the house. Betsy Rebecca died in 1875 and William got married again in 1877 to Betsy Rebecca Cracknell.  By 1879 William and Betsy had moved to Eye and Edward Goldspink had taken on a 15-year tenancy for Green Farm. The 1881 census tells us that Edward’s son George is living next door and farming 317 acres and his father Edward is now living in Wilby. This must mean that George is farming both the Horham Road Farm and Green Farm. The same census records that two farm workers and their families were living in the Green Farm farmhouse. A few years later the farmhouse was demolished and replaced with a pair of cottages which are now called Peartree Cottages. It is difficult to know exactly when this happened, but the different editions of the Ordinance Survey maps suggest that it was sometime between  1884 and 1888.

Finally, we come to the farm that we now known as Green Farm. Historical records show that this farm passed through the hands of three generations of the Barnes family. In 1761 the first John Barnes was paying a rent of £42 to the Adair estate and in 1798 was paying Land tax of £13.14. When he died in 1814 his son John took on the tenancy and was recorded as the occupier of the farm on the tithe apportionment in 1839 and also the resident farmer on the 1841 census.

He in turn died in 1845 and was replaced by his son John who is recorded as farming there on the 1851, 1861 and 1871 census. During John’s tenancy happenings on the farm appeared several times in the local press. There was a break-in at the farm in 1849 which was featured in the Spring 2019 edition of this magazine. In 1863 a farm worker lost his balance on top of the threshing machine and his arm was ripped off by the beaters. Then in 1874 Thomas Mattock died as a result of being kicked by a horse. In 1877 John’s son John, together with some other Redlingfield residents were fined for being drunk at the Crown Inn. Earlier that year John’s wife Rachel had died, and in September 1878 the Framlingham Weekly News published an announcement for the sale of the livestock, farm equipment and household furniture. John and his son then moved to Ipswich. The Ipswich Journal gave an account of his sudden death in 1880 due to heart attack in the Bethesda Chapel at the Sunday service.

George Goldspink took on the tenancy in 1878 and as mentioned earlier the old Green Farm became merged with this one, and the original three farms finally became one. When George Goldspink renewed his tenancy agreement in 1895 it was for a single farm named Green Farm which is still there today, albeit with a new farmhouse due to the old one being destroyed by fire when a plane crashed beside it in 1943. For those who don’t know the story, details can be found on the history section of the village website.

By Stephen Ling (Published in Athelington, Horham & Redlingfield News Summer 2024 issue No 65).