Old Summerhill

Summary

Former seventeenth century threshing barn with floored and jettied end bay, converted to domestic use in about 1989.

Reasons for Designation

Old Summerhill, a C17 barn converted in the late 1980s, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for the barn’s structural frame and associated historic features, which provide legible evidence of its form, construction, historic character and use;
* as a rare example of a barn with an end bay in the East Sussex and Kent context which is both floored and jettied.

Historic interest:

* as a large-scale farm building reflecting the area’s rich agricultural economy and vernacular building traditions in the early modern period.

Group value:

* with the Grade II listed farmhouse to the west (Summerhill House) and the Grade II listed converted oasthouse to the north (Summerhill Oast) with which it forms a legible farmstead group.

History

Old Summerhill is a former barn of probable C17 date which historically formed part of Summerhill Farm. The barn shows evidence of a combined use, having both a threshing bay and a floored bay at its north end which, unusually, is also jettied. The upper floor may have been for storage, or possibly sleeping accommodation, perhaps with livestock beneath. Barns with floored bays were not uncommon in this part of the south-east up to the mid-C17, but the jetty is a rare feature.

The C17 farmhouse, now known as Summerhill House, is situated to the west, across what was once the farmyard, and an oasthouse was added to the north-west of the barn in the C19. C19 maps indicate a secondary range running westwards at right-angles from the barn, believed to have been an open-fronted shelter shed, which was the largest of several structures added to, or built against, the barn. All have since been removed.

The barn was listed at Grade II in 1987, along with the house and oasthouse (National Heritage List for England entries: 1045834 and 1060712). Shortly after, both the barn and oasthouse were converted for residential use.

By the time of listing the barn’s roof had already been replaced above the tie beams and conversion saw this fabric renewed again, the new roof was extended down over new outshuts to the east and south. The building’s frame was repaired and underpinned with concrete foundations and a new brick plinth. The frame’s infill panels, noted on the original List entry as being of lath and daub, were replaced. The floor of the north bay, which had been lost by the time of listing, was reinstated and the rest of the interior floored and subdivided to create a typical arrangement of domestic accommodation.

Details

Former C17 threshing barn with floored and jettied end bay, converted to domestic use in about 1989.

MATERIALS: timber, probably oak, frame on a brick plinth with tiled roof. Doors and windows are timber. Infill panels of late-C20 rendered studwork.

PLAN: the barn is of four unequal bays, the former threshing bay being the third to the south. The bay to the north was historically floored (the floor reinstated at conversion) and is jettied at the north end.

The roof (renewed above the tie beams before, and again after, conversion) is hipped with gablets, extending down to a catslide over a continuous outshut to the east and south (the outshuts added as part of the conversion).

Within the barn, the threshing bay is mostly open to the underside of the roof, the other bays are floored.

EXTERIOR: the principal frame members are exposed in the north and west elevations; they show evidence of repair. The visible frame members include the jowled bay posts (the jowls visible internally), sill beam, wall plate, girding beam, curved braces and some intermediary studs. The frame rests on a low brick plinth dating to its conversion.

To the west, the two northerly bays have curved up-braces above the girding beam and the northernmost bay has a small first-floor window opening under the wall plate with a pegged sill, now with a modern casement in the opening. The bases of the threshing bay posts are jowled inwards towards each other. The full height of the threshing bay was infilled with vertical timber boarding at its conversion and a new front door set within it. The bay posts retain the pintles of the threshing bay doors. Across the elevation windows have been irregularly let into the infill panels.

The north elevation is jettied; the ends of the east and west girding beams originally resting on curved spandrel brackets, but that to the west has been lost. The ends of the replacement floor joists are exposed. At ground floor is a pair of curved down-braces jointed either side of a central stud, and a window has been inserted either side. The first floor has curved down-braces jointed into the corner posts. At the centre is another small window with pegged sill to match that to the west (now with two additional windows either side).
The east and south elevations of the historic barn are enclosed within the later outshuts (1989), which are clad in weatherboard and have an irregular pattern of doors and windows.

INTERIOR: the building’s interior interest relates to its historic frame; other late-C20 interior fabric* (with the exception of the floor frame of the north bay) associated with its later conversion in about 1989 is not included in the listing. The majority of the timbers visible on the exterior are also expressed within, alongside the tie beams and principal frame members now enclosed within the footprint as a result of the later outshuts. This includes the weathered frame of the south end wall, which has curved down-braces above the girding-beam, the joints marked with carpenter’s marks. The frame has empty sockets on the horizontal soffits and grooves on the vertical ones, evidencing the use of stathes and laths to form the infill panels.

The east posts of the threshing bay have arched braces in-situ, elsewhere the braces may have been lost or enclosed within partition walls. The framework of the first floor was inserted at conversion, but that to the north bay replaces an original floored arrangement.

* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the interior fabric and finishes dating to the building's conversion in about 1989 (with the exception of the floor frame of the north bay which reinstates a lost historic feature) are not of special architectural or historic interest, however any works which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or historic interest may still require LBC and this is a matter for the LPA to determine.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

174673

Legacy System:

LBS

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