Building record 6559/1/10 - Threshing barn

{1} The only building with clear evidence of phased building. It is a twin bay barn, the western bay built of coursed and roughly squared local stone with red bull nosed brick corbels. The door and window reveals are again red bull nosed bricks, the roof is again modern Welsh Slate and the majority of the roof timbers are also modern (the west truss is original.) The eastern bay is built of red bricks laid in an English Garden Wall bond (one course of header bricks to three courses of stretcher bricks) with saw tooth corbelling on the east gable along with a diamond vent. Again there is an original truss, as well as an original purlin surviving within the roof structure, possibly oak.
There are large threshing doors on the north and south walls at the east end of the westernmost bay. There is an apparently inserted door in the wall between the two bays.
Internally, there are a number of interesting features remaining. Within the west bay there is a bearing mounted on the timber projecting from the western wall indicating a belt drive, run either by a steam engine or a horse engine once operating within the barn. Secondly and more unusual are the bricks used to face the interior of the stone walls; either unusual sized bricks have been used or common red bricks have been laid on end. This internal finishing is only used to approximately 2 metres above the existing floor level, the remainder of the interior is exposed stone. Laying bricks in this way undoubtedly consumed fewer bricks and was therefore cheaper, but may also have served as a form of pest control, creating fewer orifices in which rodents could nest close to the stored crops.
The eastern bay, being brick-built is likely to be a later building; it is unclear whether it replaced an earlier building on the same footprint or was a new build. Internally, there is nothing of architectural or historical significance remaining with no evidence of its original use. The vent and pitching door on the east gable, however indicates the bay was originally a barn, possibly added during the period of expansion agriculture underwent in the late 19th century.

<1> Richards, G., 2013, An Archaeological Standing Building Survey: Heathencote Farm, Heathencote, Northamptonshire, p.7 (checked) (Report). SNN109592.

Record last edited

Jun 20 2014 3:14PM