From fish ponds to farmhouses, dovecotes to duck decoys, we care for a wide variety of agricultural buildings and features.

They reflect historical changes in agricultural technology and farming practice, the agricultural base of the country house estate, and the historical link between subsistence, field sports and the traditions of the countryside.

Duck decoy

You can see a rare example of a fully working 17th-century decoy at Boarstall Duck Decoy in Buckinghamshire.

Dovecotes

The stone dovecote at Willington Dovecote & Stables in Bedfordshire holds nesting boxes for over 1500 pigeons. Kinwarton Dovecote in Warwickshire dates from the 14th century and still houses doves.

Half-timbered Hawford Dovecote in Worcestershire is the surviving building of a monastic grange. Also in Worcestershire, Wichenford Dovecote dates from the 17th-century and is black-and-white half-timbered. An interesting octagonal dovecote, with doves, can be found at Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk.

Farms

Wimpole Home Farm in Cambridgeshire, built in 1794 at Wimpole Hall, houses a range of rare animal breeds.

The small and charming estate of Llanerchaeron, Ceredigion, including its farm buildings and granary, has survived virtually unchanged since the late 18th century.

At Tatton Park in Cheshire there is a working 1930s farm. The Park Farm at Shugborough in Staffordshire has a rare breeds centre and working corn-mill.

The grounds at Sunnycroft in Shropshire amount to a ‘mini-farm’, with pigsties, stables, kitchen garden and orchards.

Barns

One of the largest barns in the country, Middle Littleton Tithe Barn in Worcestershire dates from the 13th century. Other 13th-century survivors are the monastic Coggeshall Grange Barn in Essex and Great Coxwell Barn in Oxfordshire.

Fifteenth-century Ashleworth Tithe Barn stands on the banks of the River Severn. West Pennard Court Barn in Somerset also dates from the 15th century. Fourteenth-century Bredon Barn in Worcestershire, built of Cotswold stone, was once a threshing barn. There is a magnificent monastic barn at Buckland Abbey in Devon.

Other National Trust places where you can see agricultural architecture:

Antony (dovecote) and Cotehele Mill in Cornwall. Lower Brockhampton in Herefordshire. Speke Hall in Liverpool. Cherryburn in Northumberland. Avebury and Lacock Village in Wiltshire. Braithwaite Hall, East Riddlesden Hall (Great Barn), Malham Tarn Estate and Upper Wharfedale in Yorkshire. Ardress House in County Armagh. Aberdeunant in Carmarthenshire. Ty’n-y-coed Uchaf in Conwy.