Originally a threshing barn built circa 1780, Gooda’s takes the name of the tenant of the farm at this time, Joseph Gooda. The farm was one of two owned by Charles Purvis Esquire, the owner of Darsham House that lies 400m to the north-east of the barn. The farm was approximately a third pasture and the rest arable.

 

The farm’s name, Mill Hill Farm, is thought to derive from the Mill that once stood on the site in the 18th Century, although it had been moved into the village of Darsham by 1843 and the farm renamed Gravelpit until it returned to its original title in the 1960’s.

 

Well preserved in its Georgian state, we were lucky that the red bricks, pan-tiled roof and butt-purlin roof  structure were able to be mostly saved during the renovation process. The lean-to rear porch, added in the mid-19th century has also been renovated to become the barn’s bathrooms and wet rooms. You can still see the original ventilation loops in patterns of three that would have been for the barns intended use in the 18th century – housing grain.