The Barley Barn at Cressing Temple

Summary

An aisled barn, constructed for the Knights Templar sometime between 1205 and 1235. One of the earliest surviving timber framed barns in England, the thirteenth century Barley Barn is also scheduled, and forms a part of the Cressing Temple scheduled monument.

Reasons for Designation

The Barley Barn at Cressing Temple is listed at Grade I for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* for the exceptional interest found in its early C13 timber frame and the technical aspects of its construction;
* for the sequences of alteration found in its fabric, especially the C15 and C16 changes to the structure of the roof and outer walls.

Historic interest:
* as one of the earliest surviving timber framed barns in England;
* for its origins as part of a significant Templar preceptory.

Group value:
* for the contribution it makes to the exceptional group of listed and scheduled assets at Cressing Temple; including the Grade I listed Wheat Barn, the Grade II* listed Granary, the Grade II listed Farmhouse, and the Grade II listed Walled Garden with attached structures.

History

Cressing Temple is named for its earliest recorded owners, the Knights Templar, and the nearby settlement at Cressing. The Templars were a military monastic order founded in the crusader kingdom of Jerusalem in around 1118. They rapidly spread in number, wealth and significance. In 1137, less than twenty years after their foundation, Queen Matilda granted the Templars the land for a ‘preceptory’ at Cressing, augmented by the granting of the neighbouring manor of Witham by her husband, King Stephen, in 1147.

The preceptory served as an administrative and financial centre managing recruitment and the burgeoning wealth of the order. It was only the second Templar site in England, after that in London. It was soon large and important enough that within seven decades two large barns had been built, along with a chapel, hall or domestic building, fishponds, and a moat.

The earliest surviving building at the site is the Barley Barn, constructed sometime between 1205 and 1235. Over the next seven centuries it remained in constant agricultural use.

The Templars were suppressed in 1308 and in 1312 Cressing Temple was transferred to the Knights Hospitallers. In 1381 the site was sacked during the Peasants’ Revolt.

Under the Hospitallers the Barley Barn saw some significant alterations. The outer walls appear to have been rebuilt in the early-C15, removing the lower passing braces and resulting in a shorter and narrower building. The roof structure was altered in the early-C16 with the replacement of at least two tie-beams and the insertion of crown posts and a collar purlin. These phases of alteration have been dated to 1410-1445 and to around 1510 respectively, though structurally it is more likely that they happened simultaneously. In order to account for the apparent disparity between the dates it has been theorised by Andrews that the outer walls could have been replaced in 1510 using older materials, but this remains only a theory.

The Hospitallers were themselves disbanded in England in 1540 and their land was surrendered to the Crown. The site was granted to Sir William Huse and then sold to the Smyth family, who oversaw the remodelling of the site in the late-C16.

In the mid-C18 the east wall was rebuilt and a midstrey (porch) added. Later still, a set of taking-in doors were inserted, along with C20 double doors at the north end. There have been repairs and piecemeal replacements at various times from the C18 to the C20. Some arcade posts have been shored up to replace the sills and plinths below, leaving shoring notches in the posts.

A small lean-to extension at the north corner was demolished in 1986.

The barn remained in agricultural use until 1987 when it came into the ownership of Essex County Council. A programme of repairs was almost immediately required to address damage caused by the Great Storm of that year, including the replacement of the tiled roof coverings.

Details

An aisled barn, constructed for the Knights Templar sometime between 1205 and 1235.

MATERIALS

The barn is oak-framed and the roofs are covered in plain tiles. The walls are weatherboarded and stand on a brick plinth.

EXTERIOR

The barn is rectangular and orientated roughly north-east to south-west. There is a central midstrey or porch on the south-east side. It is 38m long, 14m wide and 15m high. The main roof is hipped with gablets; the midstrey roof is fully hipped. The south-east elevation has three taking in doors, one narrow fixed window with diamond glazing, and a C20 door reached by a small set of steps on the left-hand side. The upper part of the north-east elevation is rendered and there is a pair of C20 double doors between two slatted vents. The rear (north-east) elevation includes a pair of doors corresponding to the midstrey and a slatted vent. The upper part of the south-west elevation is rendered, as well as the side elevations of the central midstrey.

INTERIOR

The barn has five main bays with two narrow end bays. The original trusses were all of a tie-beam and principal rafter form, with passing braces rising from the wall posts to the roof apex. These have been altered so that the outer walls were rebuilt and the passing braces removed between the aisle posts and the outer walls, but the parts of the original trusses remain and the scars left by their construction are clearly legible. The two central trusses have an additional lower tie-beam with cruciform bracing between the two tiers. The roof structure has been supplemented by crown-posts, collars and collar purlins. Other structural features of particular note include the use of open-notched lap joints, and mortice and tenon joints with a v-shaped profile.

The outer walls have been dendrochronologically dated to 1410-1445 and have jowled posts, heavy studs and curved bracing trenched to the inside. The wall plates have edge-halved and bridged scarf joints.

The crown posts are plain and have down braces to the tie beams and axial braces to the collar purlin.

The midstrey has jowled outer posts and unjowled inner posts, primary straight bracing above the girts, and a clasped purlin roof.

Some arcade posts and some sections of arcade-plate are reinforced by bolted parallel timbers. A section of arcade plate opposite the midstrey and extending for half a bay in each direction has been replaced. The tie-beam of the truss to the north-east of the midstrey has been replaced, and in the next truss to the north-east all parts except the arcade posts have been replaced.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

116396

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Hewett, C A, The Development of Carpentry 1200-1700 An Essex Study, (1969)
Robey, TS, Cressing Temple in Current Archaeology, Vol. 135, (1993), 84-87
RCHME, , An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Essex: Volume 3, (1922)
Andrews, D, Cressing Temple: a Templar and Hospitaller manor in Essex, (2020)

Websites
'The People of 1381' database, accessed 17/11/2025 from https://data.1381.online/projects_database/pr_sources_ro/?action=view&id=3742

Other
Essex Archaeology and History (Transactions of the Essex Society of Archaeology and History, 3rd Series), vols. 11-14, 20-31, and 34
Medieval Archaeology (journal), vols 25, 39-41, 47
The Essex Journal, vols. 17, 21, 22, 27 (2)
Vernacular Architecture (journal), vols. 21, 24 and 28

End of official list entry

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