Concrete Barn

Summary

A warehouse and later barn of mass concrete construction dated around 1880.

Reasons for Designation

The concrete barn at Foxton, Cambridgeshire, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an early, rare and substantially intact survival of a mass concrete warehouse and barn and a pioneering application of a material which has become the most widely used construction material of the present age.

Historic interest:

* for its relationship to the development of the Cam Valley cement industry, a major contributor to the growth of concrete as a building material.

History

The barn 200m west of Foxton Station was constructed after the development of the railway in 1851, and before the Ordnance Survey of 1886. It appears to have been constructed in connection with the early cement industry developing in Foxton (and Cambridgeshire more generally) at the end of the C19.

The building's no-fines massed concrete construction is unusual for its date. It makes use of large gravel aggregate and very few fine sands, a method that was not common until after the Second World War. The shuttered lifts can easily be seen on the exterior where there is no render present.

Positioned close to the (no longer extant) railway sidings, the building's plan form suggests it originated as a transit warehouse. Stored goods at the first floor could be ramped directly down onto rolling stock on the north side of the building. While the internal ramp survives, none of the corresponding access arrangements on the south side are in position. The original railed doors at first and ground floor are missing, and the means by which materials were taken up to the first floor is unclear.

The earliest record of a cement industry in Foxton appears in an advertisement in the Cambridge Chronicle, October 1876. At that date, concrete construction was still relatively uncommon. A barn in Buscot, Oxfordshire, dated around 1870 is reputed to be the earliest agricultural building of concrete construction in England (Grade II National Heritage List for England entry 1284916).

Many of the building's original apertures have been blocked, its railed loading doors have been lost, and any remaining elements of the original cast iron fenestration have been fragmented and ruined. The principal structural elements, however, including the exterior walls, undercroft arcade, floors and roof have all survived. The slate roof coverings are thought to have been replaced since 2010.

Details

A warehouse and later barn of mass concrete construction dated around 1880.

MATERIALS: the walls are constructed of no-fines mass concrete. The angled queen post roof, suspended first floor and other structural timbers are pine.

PLAN: the building's two storeys appear to have an open internal plan. Goods appear to have been loaded into the building on the south side at first floor, and distributed to the railway via a ramp on the north side. A single internal staircase at the north of the building provides access between the floors.

EXTERIOR: the building sits beneath a hipped roof covered in slate. The long south elevation is un-rendered and has a central entrance at ground floor, beneath a wide segmental arch. On each side of the entrance are two window openings, two of which are now blocked, also beneath segmental arches formed from massed concrete. At first floor there are three square windows beneath flat timber lintels, interspaced by two large loading doors. Both of the loading doors, and the ground floor entrance have partially surviving rails or fixings from which a sliding door could be suspended.

The un-rendered west elevation is blank at ground floor and has one blocked central window, and a surviving window opening on the right hand side.

The east elevation is covered in cement render and has a central window opening at first floor.

The un-rendered north elevation borders the railway line and could not be inspected in detail. It features two window openings at ground floor, and a blocked central loading door with its base just beneath the level of the first floor, rising to the height of the eaves.

Fragments of the building's original cast iron fenestration can be seen in some of the window openings.

INTERIOR: the ground floor is divided along its length by an arcade of seven shallow, rendered, arches supporting the pine joists of the first floor. On the north side a concrete wall supports the underside of the access ramp that leads to the loading door, and a flight of steps leading to the first floor.

The first floor has no ceiling and no internal walls. Many of the original joists and floor boards survive. Centrally at the north side of the room the access ramp is set into the floor, and passes between an H-framed timber structure. This structure relieves the weight of the tie beam which would otherwise rest on the lintel of the loading bay.

Sources

Other
1st edition Ordnance Survey 1886
Applicant supplied sources

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