Building record 3136/2/15 - The Threshing Barn, Chester Farm

Barn, probably of the 17th century, built of coursed limestone with slate roof. Central cart entrance in elevation to yard. Some original roof timbers.

{4} A five bay barn built of stone with parapeted gables and a Welsh slate roof. It has a wide cart entrance onto the farm yard and a small door leading into the House Yard. Other doorways lead into the Dated Barn and a small building at the east end. The two central trusses have tie-beams and queen struts whilst the end trusses have collars and simple arch bracing. Mortice holes in the purlins indicate the position of windbraces from the principal rafters to the lower row of purlins. Peg holes in the lower purlin where the Dated Barn abuts indicates that rafters have been removed from this position and that the Dated (1690) Barn is later than the Old Barn. The variation in truss design is to allow the sheaves to be stacked higher. The building exhibits three different types of ventilation slits: triangular, longitudinal and a four light square form with crude stone mullions and transoms. Both the longitudinal and square forms have sloping lower sills on the internal face. On each bay of the farm yard elevation are longitudinal vents. The west gable has a longitudinal apex slit, two lower triangual slits and an off centred longitudinal slit below the main eaves level. On the west gable are three square vents above eaves level. The House Yard elevation has two blocked longitudinal silts and a row of triangular slits below eaves level. The positioning of the triangular slits suggests that their main function was ornamental. It does not appear that the variation in slits represents different phases of construction. The building is a single cart entrance threshing barn with seventeenth century roof timbers and staples in tie beams used for hanging carcases when the barn was used as a slaughter house. The bitumen-based floor was also put in the recent past when the building was converted into a slaughter house. The structural evidence would suggest that the building predates the adjacent barn of 1690 but it is doubtful whether the structure is earlier than 1600. The evidence for this are the arch braces on the end trusses, evidence of windbraces and the relatively narrow wall thicknesses which are typical of the seventeenth century. Bearing in mind that the building is reasonably high status with a degree of ornamentation it is probably that it is part of a refurbishment of the site carried out by Thomas Ekins in the first half of the seventeenth century. The door in the east wall is probably nineteenth century.

{5} Trial pits revealed that the walls of the building continued to a depth of 1.06m below current ground level in one area, and 6 courses of rough cut limestone and a single footing in another.

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 5/194 (checked) (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> 1986, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), G05 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN100394.

<3> ELLISON M., 1997, SMR Report Form, (checked) (SMR Report Form). SNN49112.

<4> Giggins B., 1990, Chester Farm, Irchester, Architectural Survey, pp.13-16 (checked) (Report). SNN71035.

<4> Giggins B., 2011, Chester Farm, Irchester: Farm Buildings Appraisal and Interpretation Potential, pp.13-16 (checked) (Report). SNN107469.

<5> Townend, P., 2012, An Archaeological Watching Brief at Chester House Farm, Irchester, Northamptonshire, p.5 (checked) (Report). SNN109213.

Record last edited

Jun 15 2023 9:24AM