Triggs Barn
TRIGGS BARN, HIGH STREET
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1096090
- Date first listed:
- 17-Apr-2003
- List Entry Name:
- Triggs Barn
- Statutory Address:
- TRIGGS BARN, HIGH STREET
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Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1096090
- Date first listed:
- 17-Apr-2003
- List Entry Name:
- Triggs Barn
- Statutory Address 1:
- TRIGGS BARN, HIGH STREET
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- TRIGGS BARN, HIGH STREET
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Hertfordshire
- District:
- Stevenage (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- TL 23382 25207
Details
733/0/10016 HIGH STREET 17-APR-03 TRIGG'S BARN
GV II
Barn/cartshed, also serving as resting place. C17 outbuilding with early-C18 coffin placed on the collars; minor later repairs to both. Building owned by local grocer Henry Trigg in the C18, whose coffin was placed there in 1724. Timber framed with weatherboards on brick plinth with pitched tile roof. Coffin in several layers of oak, pine and lead. BARN/CARTSHED: 2-bays open to yard to north with single post. Other 3 walls of wood studs to low brick plinth with slightly curved braces to the wall plate. Queen post truss with raking struts to principal collars notched into single purlins; similar arrangement to gable ends. Additional collars at west end where the coffin rests. Pegged rafters, and some curved wind braces. COFFIN: Placed approx. 10' above ground on collars supported by purlins. Made up of an inner box of oak encased in heavy lead and then in pine, held together with metal bands, and covered again with a thin sheet of metal. HISTORY: The wealthy C18 Hertfordshire grocer Henry Trigg specified in his 1724 Will that 'as to my body I commit it to the West end of my Hovel, to be decently laid there upon a floor erected by my Executor, upon the purlin, for the same purpose.' It was placed on collars at the west end of the building. Trigg's niece specified in her 1769 Will that Trigg be removed from the coffin to Stevenage Churchyard, but he was not as several accounts of the presence of Trigg's bones were made through the mid-C20. However, none were in situ in 1999 when the coffin was temporarily removed during repairs to the cartshed.
A very unusual and possibly unique example of a coffin being placed above ground in the roof of a building. Also of interest for its cultural significance: Trigg was challenging priestly authority with this untraditional burial; it is a very early instance of a fear of grave robbing, which was a late-C18/C19 anxiety; and Trigg's eccentricity became the focus of a small cult of tourism. And lastly, the storage barn or cartshed has considerable interest for its C17 frame and its survival as an outbuilding in the centre of the old town of Stevenage.
Group value with No.37 High Street, formerly Trigg's house and shop, then the Old Castle Inn, and now the National Westminster Bank.
NGR: TL2338225207
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 490055
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 06-Jun-2026 at 01:31:22.
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All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.