Merriams Farm is a farmstead of some antiquity. The earliest reilable document relating to the farm dates from 1673 although the farm is probably much older as the farmhouse dates from the 15th century. The outlying farmbuildings are of 19th-20th century date.

A Survey of the farmbuildings by the Swale and Thames Archaeological Survey Company concluded that stone buildings, part of the "upperyard" built into the hillside, the earth supported on the uphill by a monolithic Kentish ragstone wall 2.5m high, to be of a very early date. The surveyor suggested that these buildings are pre-twelfth century and no later than the fourteenth, but they may go back as far as the eighth century.

A walkover survey by the same surveyor found possible Roman pottery and ceramic fragments along with Early Mediveal pottery.(1,2)

A later suvey by the Oxford Archaeological Unit in November 2000 considered that these buildings were of mid-19th century date when the farm seems to have changed over to fruit or hop growing. (3)

<1> Swale and Thames Archaeological Survey Company, 2000, Archaeological Evaluation on buildings situated at Merriams Farm, Caring Lane, Leeds [Interim Report] (Unpublished document). SKE7536.

<3> Oxford Archaeological Unit, 2000, Merriams Farm, Leeds, Kent: Historic Building Assessment (Unpublished document). SKE7550.