Threshing barn at Whitehouse Farm

Summary

A late-C18 threshing barn, with C20 extensions. The C20 extensions are excluded. The associated stables and agricultural buildings of the C18 and C19 are much altered and also excluded from the listing.

Reasons for Designation

The late C18 threshing barn at Whitehouse Farm is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: the building is a substantial threshing barn dating from the C18, which has been remarkably little altered since its construction;
* Degree of survival: the timber frame and roof structure, which are well made, have undergone very little loss or alteration, with even the majority of the common rafters surviving;
* Legibility: the building retains its threshing floor, opposing double door openings and substantial gabled porch, which clearly speak of its function.

History

Whitehouse Farm formed part of the Idlicote estate, an extensive manorial holding, which was owned in the C16 by William Underhill, who famously sold New Place in Stratford-upon-Avon to William Shakespeare in 1597. The manor passed through many hands in the C18 and C19, and was bought by Lord Southampton circa 1900. Whitehouse Farm remained part of the estate during the earlier part of the C20; documents in Warwickshire Record Office detail an annual lease in 1922 between Lord Southampton’s estate and Rosa Jane Ashby of Cottage Farm in Alderminster, for the sum of £300. The agricultural part of the Idlicote estate, presumably including Whitehouse Farm, was sold off by Lord Southampton in 1942.

The earliest of the present farm buildings dates from the later C18, roughly contemporary with the adjacent farmhouse, Whitehouse Farmhouse (Grade II), which was constructed in the mid-to-late C18. The farm buildings were laid out in a tight courtyard arrangement, on four sides of a rectangle, beginning with the threshing barn, which survives almost unaltered; this was followed by further agricultural buildings to either side, and a further L-shaped range which is now stables. The first edition Ordnance Survey map published in 1886 shows four ranges surrounding a yard in broadly their current arrangement, though the stables range was altered in the first quarter of the C20 to create a verandah along the front for shelter; it may have originated as another type of agricultural building. Various extensions were added to the buildings in the later C20, and the entrance to the yard was roofed over in the second half of the C20. Other internal alterations were made to the agricultural buildings, apart from the barn. The house was sold into separate ownership in the early C21.

Details

A late-C18 threshing barn, with C20 extensions. The C20 extensions are excluded. The associated stables and agricultural buildings of the C18 and C19 are much altered and also excluded from the listing.

MATERIALS: the barn is timber framed, with brick gable ends, stone plinth and is clad in weatherboard.

PLAN: the barn forms part of a group of buildings arranged around four sides of a roughly square courtyard. The barn makes up part of the NW range.

The barn has a T-shaped plan.

EXTERIOR: the barn is a high, three-bay structure, with a steeply-pitched roof. It is timber-framed, and stands on a brick plinth with some stone, which varies in height, and is highest to the rear. The long elevations are clad in horizontally-laid weatherboarding above the plinth, and the roofs are covered in plain clay tiles. To the south-eastern elevation, facing in to the farm yard, the wide central bay has high, double timber doors, and a small, square, timber casement window has been inserted in to the upper part of the left-hand bay. The gable ends are clad in red brick. The rear has a wide, full-height projecting gabled porch with full-width double-doors.

INTERIOR: the barn’s timber frame is visible internally, and appears almost entirely intact. The frame is formed from close-studded uprights, with high midrails and diagonal bracing. The western bay is divided horizontally by a timber floor supported on brick piers to either side, and a central upright timber post. There is no vertical partition. The roof structure has trusses which stand on jowled upright posts, and are formed from roughly-chamfered tie beams, paired principal rafters, queen struts, a high collar and two tiers of butt purlins, all pegged. Diagonal braces extend from the uprights to the tie beams, lapped on, but probably original as they are respected by the chamfering. The roof retains its original common rafters. The central bay retains its threshing floor, which extends into the porch. An opening has been created in the south-western gable end to give access to the late-C20 extension.

Sources

Books and journals
The Victoria History of the County of Warwickshire: Volume V, (1945), 95-8

End of official list entry

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