Fingest Farm Fingest Buckinghamshire

Fingest Farm in Buckinghamshire is a good example of a relatively small, largely
later 18th-century farmstead with various surviving buildings including a main barn,
stables, milking parlour and shelter shed. The buildings, particularly the main barn,
retain various examples of vernacular construction including weatherboarded timber
framing set on low flint and brick plinths, queen strut trusses to stables and the use of
curved inner principals to the main barn.
The buildings are relatively crudely constructed and this adds to the character of the
structures and provides one of the interests of the site. The roof of the main barn has a
pronounced sag between bays to the ridge and eaves and this gives something of an
organic character to the farmstead which is echoed in the surrounding rolling
Chiltern hills. The number of waney members, many of which retain bark to their
edges adds to this organic character.
The current work has enhanced our understanding of the farmstead and shown that
the milking parlour retains the oldest surviving fabric at the site, namely the north
wall and fragments in the south and west walls. These fragments are probably of 17thcentury
date but they were then incorporated into the main north range, together with
the stables, in the 18th century. The milking parlour is also of interest because it
retains evidence to suggest that it formerly had a hayloft, and therefore that the
stables probably continued throughout this range.
The stables retain some historic features such as feeding stalls and partitions which
have a cobbled-together character with numerous patched alterations and Finial
Associates' report on the building describes it as 'rustic vernacular at its best'.
The barn is the largest and most significant building at the site but this range was
previously almost twice the length of the current building, extending to the south with
a further three bays as well as a small shelter at the south end. It appears that this
former range, which collapsed in 1977 but from which the plinth and some timber
fragments survive, would have been a continuation of the existing barn, rather than a
separate adjoining building. It was presumably originally a much longer barn with
two threshing floors.
A common feature of the building is the extent to which it has required various phases
of propping, strengthening and elements of rebuilding to prevent it from collapsing
like the southern portion. The largest and clearest phase of works appears to be of
later 20th-century date (possibly 1977 when the southern part collapsed) but there are
also earlier phases of work including props added towards the northern end.
A date of 1784 is carved into one of the posts and although this does not necessarily
relate to the construction of the barn the rest of the structure does suggest that a date
from the second half of the 18th century is likely. The most significant surviving feature
in the barn is the well-preserved threshing floor.
The west range of the yard is a small shelter shed and although this retains parts of a
potentially 18th-century building the roof has been entirely rebuilt in the later 20th
century.