Farmstead record MKE84152 - Broadditch Farm

Type: Loose courtyardL with working agricultural buildings on three sides
Farmhouse: Farmhouse detached in central position
Position: Isolated position
Survivial: Altered - partial loss of original form (less than 50%)
(1-2)

Broadditch, now a small hamlet in Southfleet, developed around a cluster of buildings at the junction of Red Street and New Barn Road. The earliest surviving maps, including the 1799 Ordnance Survey manuscript, show Broadditch centred on what is now Wastdale, a timber-framed house dating from the early 17th century. Originally a smallholding, the property passed to the Venner family in 1699 and became the nucleus of a growing agricultural holding. During the early 19th century Benjamin Venner built the present Broadditch Farm (later Manor Farm), converting the older farmhouse into cottages. The area remained a farming community until the 20th century, when many original buildings were altered or rebuilt. Wastdale survives as the principal historic remnant of the original Broadditch settlement. (3)

<1> Forum Heritage Services, 2012, Kent Farmsteads & Landscape Project (Unpublished document). SKE18075.

<2> English Heritage, 2009, Historic Farmsteads: A Manual for Mapping (Unpublished document). SKE18076.

<3> Roger A C Cockett, 2016, A Short History of Broadditch Farm alias Wastdale in Southfleet (Unpublished document). SKE58181.