The buildings now known as Dairyhouse Farm appear on the 1842 Tithe Map, owned by Lady Fremantle and occupied by John Fox [not John Bell, corrected 23.8.2024] as part of what was then Cowesfield Green Farm. It seems certain that the barn and cottage shown are indeed the barn (now converted) and house that are still there. Cowesfield Green Farm at the time reached from the top of Dean Hill to Parkwater Cottage on Cowesfield Road, as shown on the map below. The farm buildings that are now Parkwater Farm and the farmhouse that is now Cowesfield Manor were also occupied by John Fox, labelled on the 1842 map as Cowesfield Green Farm. The 1841 census shows John Fox (aged 30) with presumably a sister Ann (25) and brother Stephen (25). The four other people listed are an agricultural labourer James Biffin (20), a female servant Harriot Halett (15) and two other young women Eliza Pinnick (25) and Clarissa Drake (20) [see Whiteparish.co.uk]. Whether these seven people lived together in one of the houses or separately in the two is not known. Ann and Stephen are listed as being the same age, so may have been twins, and an Anne Fox married William Sutton in Whiteparish church in 1841 - this may or may not have been the same person.
By 1851 John and Stephen had each married. They had apparently divided the farm into three parts and were each using one part. Helpfully, John and Stephen helfully listed the sizes of their farms and number of employees under the heading "occupation" on the 1851 census, John and his wife Sophia, two children aged 2 and 8 and a 16 year old servant having 230 acres and 18 labourers, while Stephen and his wife Sarah, three children aged 1, 3 and 5 and a 17 year old house servant farmed 62 acres with 3 labourers. See Cowesfield Manor for more details of John and Stephen Fox, together with their census records. Neither family appears on the 1861 census. The division of land leaves 172 acres unaccounted for, which may possibly have been Ann's portion? While I have assumed above that the original land rented from Lady Fremantle had been divided, the possibility remains that some or all of the two 1851 holdings may have been elsewhere in the parish.
In 1842 Lady Fremantle owned both the manors of Cowesfield Esturmy and Cowesfield Louveras, but not the intervening Cowesfield Spilman manor. Her father, Sir John Elwell, had purchased both manors. Cowesfield Esturmy had been owned by George Pitt of Strathfieldspaye [and Wikipedia] in 1676, and passed to a descendant George, first Lord Rivers of "this family" [Matcham], who sold the manor to Sir John Elwell in 1777 [Matcham page 76]. Cowesfield Louveras had been owned by Anne, daughter and coheir of John St Barbe of Alderbury and formally in possession of her husband "in right of his wife" [Matcham page 71] -- Kemshead in 1760, so was separately purchased.
Notes: Selina (Bathurst) Elwill (-1781) married (2) John Elwill (sic) MP 12 Nov 1755 at West Dean (location from another source). Selina was the mother of Selina Mary (Elwill/Elwell) Fremantle, who married William Henry Fremantle in 1897. Which Lady Fremantle then?
Parkwater Farm, farmed by John Fox in 1842
Dairyhouse barn and cottage on the 1842 Tithe Map (north is to the left side of this map)
The same barn and house can be spotted in the 1896 map extract below, along with a set of additional buildings surrounding the yard 110, including small the ?1896? barn that still stands alongside the road.
Dairyhouse Farm buildings in 1896 (1:2500 Ordnance Survey, from Old-Maps)
Photo of ?1896? small barn to be added
A new house, The Bungalow, was added to the east between 1962 and 1966 [OS maps] and this, together with various additional buildings round the farmyard, is shown on the 1978 map below. The concrete block barn that is now the basis of the walled garden (see below) was also built between 1962 and 1966.
Dairyhouse Farm buildings in 1978 (1:2500 Ordnance Survey, from Old-Maps)
The photographs below show the group of barns at Dairyhouse Farm before, during and after conversion of the main barn to the house that is there in 2018.
The first pictures were taken as the conversion started on 4th March 2006. The hay had been removed to a new barn newly constructed behind this one, and in the first set of photos just a little tidying up had started around the buildings.
By 27th August 2006 the structure had been stripped to the timber frame. Over a number of months this was then gradually removed as a new base wall was constructed and the inside of the building dug out. The finished frame retains only a very small number of timbers from the original structure, with the roof completely rebuilt from scratch.
On 20th April 2007, a view showing the walls clad in plywood and the rebuilt roof. The new fence cutting off the corner of the field as a garden is also clearly visible here.
The next picture shows the conversion well under way on 12th August 2007. The original blockwork barn had been cut down to an appropriate height and capped with bricks to form a walled garden, with an entirely new brick wall joining it to the right side of the house.
The final picture in the sequence shows the house and walled garden in the snow some years later on 18th January 2013.
