Building record 3738/0/48 - Cow House, Mercer's Farm

A purpose-built cow house, constructed in 1883 of brick and stone rubble with a pantiled roof.

{1} A level 2 building was undertaken prior to conversion to residential use. The barn is first shown on a map of 1772, but may be considerably older.

It is single-storey and rectangular in form, with its longitudinal axis aligned northwest/southeast. Built of coursed stone rubble (of locally quarried type), it has a dual pitched roof of corrugated asbestos sheets. It was erected on a terrace cut from fairly steeply rising ground, with the lower parts of the rear wall and northwest gable end wall are below ground level. Late 19th century farm financial records refer to ‘the big barn’ having been thatched on two occasions. The roof pitch appears to have been altered since it was thatched.

<1> Wilson, M, 2020, Historic Agricultural Buildings at Mercer's Farm, 9 High Street, Earls Barton, Northamptonshire: Historic Building Record (Report). SNN111966.

<2> Crank, N. (Editor), 2020, South Midlands Archaeology (50), p. 92-4 (Journal). SNN112426.

<3> Souterrain Archaeological Services Ltd, 2023, Images from Historic Building Recording Work at Mercer's Farm, 9 High Street, Earls Barton, Northamptonshire, November 2019 to February 2020, https://doi.org/10.5284/1106792 (Digital archive). SNN115692.

Record last edited

May 11 2025 3:37PM