Manor Farm Barn

Summary

Tithe barn. Built in the mid-C16, incorporating a reused, late C15 roof.

Reasons for Designation

Manor Farm Barn, built in the mid-C16 and incorporating a late C15 roof, is designated at Grade I for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* For its reuse of a highly decorative late C15 roof which represents an outstanding example of historic carpentry;
* As a vernacular farm building of banded knapped flint and stone;
* Although it has undergone some repair and alteration it retains a high degree of survival of historic fabric.

Historic interest:
* As a significant example of a mid-C16 barn that has incorporated a late C15 roof in its construction.

Group value:
* For its relationship with the C16 manor house (Grade I).

History

Manor Farm Barn in Winterborne Clenston was built in the mid-C16 and incorporates a reused late C15 roof, which may have originated from a monastic building at Milton Abbey. The barn is contemporary with the Manor House (Grade I) approximately 75m to the north-east, and both express the vernacular building traditions of the area in their characteristic use of banded flint and stone. The offset stone buttresses to the barn are a later addition and some of the former openings are blocked with C18 and C19 brickwork. The roof was recovered in the C19.

Details

Tithe barn. Built in the mid-C16, incorporating a reused, late C15 roof.

MATERIALS: constructed of banded knapped flint and stone, with ashlar dressings. The gabled ends of the barn and porch roofs are weather boarded. The roof is covered in C19 tiles arranged in a chequerboard pattern.

PLAN: a cruciform plan of six-bays, with off-centre, opposing porches.

EXTERIOR: the barn has a continuous chamfered stone plinth, and the bays are articulated by added two-stage, offset buttresses; there are no buttresses at the corners. To each bay and the end walls is a chamfered rectangular ventilation slit, with ashlar surround. To the west wall the ventilation slit is flanked by square window openings. The tall, off-centre, opposing porches have pitched roofs with weather-boarded gables. The threshing doors are hung on oak jambs with cambered oak lintels. The south porch has a square headed doorway to either side but these have been blocked with C18 brickwork.

INTERIOR: (not inspected 2017) rising from stone corbels, the arch braces and wall pieces support the plain mid-C16 hammer beams. The hammer beams support the late C15 principal rafters, connected by cambered collar beams, and the hammer posts, inclined struts and the arch braces to the collar. There are small struts from the collar to the principal rafter and some of the trusses retain the collar ties near the apex. Nearly all of the members, including the principal rafters and purlins, are decorated with roll-mouldings, ogee-mouldings and hollow-chamfers. The secondary wind braces between the principal rafters and purlins are unmoulded. The truss towards the west end of the barn incorporates a mid-C16 raised cruck.

The internal walls are lined with clunch, with brick and stone repairs.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

103372

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Newman, J, The Buildings of England: Dorset, (1972), 479
An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset. Vol. 3, (1970), 292-7

Other
Bridge, M, 'Manor Farm Barn, Winterborne Clenston, Dorset: Tree-ring analysis of oak timbers', (2014) Research Report Series no. 13. Historic England

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