Description

EAST CHILTINGTON

946/0/10047 CHAPEL LANE
16-JAN-07 Barn south east of Stantons Farmhouse

GV II
Barn, late C16, timber framed with weatherboarding above brick, flint and stone walls. The roof is covered in concrete tiles.

PLAN: The barn is L-shaped, of four bays, aisled on the west side and on the north half of the east side, with aisles continuing around the north and south ends. The roof is hipped, with catslide roof over the north east aisled section. There are double doors centrally placed opposite each other in both east and west elevations.

EXTERIOR: The lower half of the wall of the west elevation to the south of the double doors is constructed of ragstone and is flint patched, repaired and partially rebuilt with brick; above, the wall is weatherboarded. The wall of the north east aisle is similar, with brick above courses of flint and brick, while all other walls are weatherboarded almost to the ground. On the east elevation, a break in the lines of weatherboarding creates a separate section over the double doors, suggesting that they may once have been taller.

INTERIOR: Much of the original timber framing is intact. The aisled construction consists of jowled arcade posts on brick plinths supporting an arcade plate and tie beams, which are also supported at either end by braces. The roof is a principal rafter roof with no ridge piece: raking struts springing from either end of the tie beams support the principal rafters and purlins, which are clasped between strut and principal rafter. There are carpenters' marks on many of the timbers: these can be clearly seen on the tie beam to the north of the west door. In the bay to the south of the east door, the framing in the lower half of the wall contains uprights with mortices, which may indicate re-use of these timbers.

The area under the hipped roof at the north end is separated by timber framing with a central upright post and cross beam, with two down braces between cross beam and arcade posts. Laths attached across the framing at this upper level indicate a possible enclosed storage platform. At the southern end of the barn there are mortices corresponding with this pattern of framing, suggesting a similar arrangement.

The north east aisle was also once partitioned from the body of the barn by timber framing above a cross beam, with cross laths nailed to the frame. The south side of the north east aisle contained a door, now weatherboarded below with window above.

HISTORY: Stantons Farmhouse was built in 1570, and was occupied by the Challoner family until 1714. The barn is of late C16 date, and therefore probably contemporary with the house. The 1:2500 Ordnance Survey map of 1873 shows that in the C19 it formed the west side of a smaller subsidiary yard which in turn lay to the west of a large open space which presumably formed the main farmyard. A range of buildings attached to its south east corner formed the south side of this smaller yard, and there were further buildings to the north. At that time the track to the south of the barn gave access to the main farmyard at its south west corner, and from there wagons would have entered the smaller yard on its east side: the main doors to the barn would have been in this elevation, not, as appears at present, to the west.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: Historic farmsteads and their buildings make a major contribution to the richly varied character of our countryside, and illustrate the long history of farming and settlement in the English landscape. The aisled barn at Stantons Farm forms part of the surviving fragments of a late C16 farmstead. It is a remarkably intact example of a nationally rare building type, a pre-1750 agricultural building, and its structure is illustrative of the development of local building traditions. It merits listing for its rarity, and for its historical and architectural interest.

SOURCES
Brunskill, R.W. 1987. Traditional Farm Buildings in England. pp36-61

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26671184

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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