Summary
Threshing barn and shelter shed. Built in around the early C18 with the shelter shed subsequently altered or extended possibly in the late C18, with later infill in red brick and cast stone in the C20.
Reasons for Designation
The threshing barn (formerly Waterlands Barn) and shelter shed, built from around the early C18 at Ironsbottom, Sidlow, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Historic interest:
* a model and very rare example of a surviving estate outfarm, dating from around the early C18, which included a threshing barn, shelter shed and later farm workers’ cottage;
* as relatively rare surviving examples of pre-Agricultural Revolution farm buildings.
Architectural interest:
* as a vernacular timber-framed threshing barn and shelter shed dating from around the early C18, which survive relatively well and retain a significant proportion of original fabric, including the clasped purlin queen strut roof structure to the barn.
Group value:
* part of an important group of historic buildings forming an estate outfarm that also shares group value with the other historic agricultural buildings of the Bures Manor Estate, including a Grade II-listed barn.
History
The small complex of buildings at Hope Cottage appears to have originated as an outfarm, including a threshing barn, shelter shed and farm workers’ cottage, attached to the Bures Manor Estate. John de Bures was granted land in the area in 1259 (Malden 1911). De Bures family land was seized by the baron of the King’s Exchequer in 1487, and then passed through several hands before coming into the ownership of the Charrington family from 1622, to which it still (in 2023) remains over 400 years later (ibid); Bures Manor (previously called Bures Farm) being 1km WNW of Hope Cottage. An outfarm appears to be shown in the location of Hope Cottage on John Rocque’s small scale map of Surrey of 1768. The map is not completely clear but possibly shows the present barn on the site, which was built in around the early C18. The farm workers’ cottage appears to have been added in about the late C18 or early C19. There are three dots in this location on Greenwood’s Map of Surrey, based on a survey undertaken in 1822 to 1823, which indicates that the cottage was in place by this time. The 1846 tithe map shows the barn and cottage as well as three other buildings forming part of the property. It is labelled as ‘Waterlands housestead and garden’ and the adjacent fields are named ‘Waterlands barn field’ and ‘Waterlands barn meadows’. The tithe apportionments record that the owner was Harriet Charrington and the occupier was John Lee in 1846. The 1870 OS map (1:2500) shows a detailed depiction of the property, including the cottage with outshut, barn and shelter shed, and two small outbuildings.
Outfarms consist of one or more buildings set around a yard away from the main farmstead, typically having sheltersheds for cattle flanking a threshing barn, and sometimes also a farm workers’ cottage. Outfarms saved on transporting the harvested crop (hay or corn crops) to the farmstead, and enabled manure from the cattle housed in them to be carted back out to the distant fields. Some outfarms eventually became farmsteads in their own right. The barn at Hope Cottage, formerly known as Waterlands Barn, was built as a threshing barn in around the early C18. A shelter shed extends from the west end of the south side of the barn. Shelter sheds are open-fronted structures for cattle typically of a single-storey and originally fitted with mangers, hayrack, and sometimes stalls. The shed may have been altered and/or extended in about the late C18, as the southern half of the roof is of slightly different construction with a ridge board and queen jacks, with further alterations using cast stone and brick in the C20. Threshing barns are often the oldest and most impressive agricultural buildings to be found on farms. The most common threshing barn plan is three bays long, with two storage bays flanking a central bay in which a threshing floor lies between two large cart entrances on either side. The crop, which could be wheat, barley, oats or rye, was threshed with flails on the threshing floor during the winter; the two opposing doorways providing a through-draught for the winnowing process whereby the chaff was separated from the grain. Surviving threshing floors, often of wood and sometimes of stone flags, brick or earth, are now very uncommon. The three-bay threshing barn plan remained largely unaltered from the C12 until threshing machines were introduced from the late C18. Early machines were usually powered by horses accommodated in a projecting wheelhouse and did away with the need for large cross-ventilated threshing bays. The introduction of the portable steam engine and threshing machine in the 1850s heralded the end of the traditional barn but many were converted into cow houses and fodder processing and storage buildings after the 1880s.
Details
Threshing barn and shelter shed. Built in around the early C18 with the shelter shed subsequently altered or extended possibly in the late C18, with later infill in red brick and cast stone in the C20.
MATERIALS: a timber-framed barn and shelter shed clad in featheredge weatherboarding with red cambered peg tile roof coverings. Later infill in red brick, and also quarry-faced artificial cast-stone to the shelter shed.
PLAN: a three-bay threshing barn with two opposing doorways to the central bay. The shelter shed extends from the west end of the south elevation of the threshing barn.
EXTERIOR: the threshing barn is three-bays long and one bay deep. It is orientated east-west and built of a post and truss timber frame set on a red brick plinth. The exterior is largely weatherboarded, except for the gable ends where there is later red brick infill laid in stretcher bond to the lower portion of these elevations. There are opposing full-height wooden boarded double doors to the central bay. A later timber door is situated between the studding in the east elevation and there are two single-light windows in the west elevation. A later window and door are also situated between the studding to the westernmost bay of the south elevation where it meets the shelter shed. The barn has a red clay tile-covered half-hipped roof. Abutting the west end of the south front of the barn is the shelter shed. The shed is a single-storey gabled building orientated north-south with the main open front at the east. Later red brick and cast stone walls have been built to the south and west sides. The northern half of the shed is enclosed with weatherboarding and entered by wooden-boarded double doors in the east front. It also has a red clay tile roof covering.
INTERIOR: the barn is open internally with the post and truss frame fully exposed. There are no partitions but there are some later ceiling beams supporting attic floor joists at the north-east corner. The central threshing bay is defined by principal rafter trusses with tie beams supported on straight braces. There is a clasped purlin roof structure with the purlins supported by angled queen struts rising from the tie beams as well as straight wind braces. At each end the roof is half-hipped. The wall frames are formed of studs and straight downward braces between the sill beams, girding beams and wall plates. A few of the timbers have been repositioned or replaced. The shelter shed has a rafter roof of roughly hewn timbers with tie beams supported by straight braces. The shed may have been altered or extended to the south at a later date where (in contrast to the northern half of the building) the roof has a ridge board and queen jacks. Metal ties and braces have also been subsequently inserted to support the tie beams.
