Summary
A threshing barn with ancillary extensions, constructed in around 1523 and extended in the C18 and C19.
Reasons for Designation
Rook Hall Barn, a threshing barn originally constructed in 1523, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* For its regionally distinctive two-tiered queen post roof trusses;
* For the very rare survival of its C16 stable and possibly original external render;
* For the high quality of its design and craftsmanship.
Historic interest:
* As an exceptionally complete example of an early-C16 threshing barn;
* As an expression of the major importance of Suffolk's agricultural economy in the late-Medieval and early-Modern period.
Group value:
* For its functional group value within the historic farmstead at Rook Hall, alongside the Grade II listed farmhouse built at the same time as the barn.
History
The farmstead at Rook Hall includes the Grade II listed hall, the earliest parts of which date to the C16, and a large threshing barn which has been dendrochronologically dated to around 1523. It is possible that the two buildings were erected at the same time, representing a very considerable investment in this site. The farm itself is in a significant position on the edge of a regionally important market centre.
It was constructed as a five-bay threshing barn. Edge-halved and bridled scarf joints on the wall plates and lower side purlins indicate that it was constructed from south to north. It is highly likely that its roof was originally tiled but by the C20 it is reported that it had been re-covered in thatch. Its walls were originally covered externally with daub plaster, an un-dated portion of which survives on the north wall. The probable use of tile for the barn roof reflects its high status as a relatively expensive material in comparison with thatch, which would have been a common alternative in the early C16. The presence of external plaster in the barn’s original design is indicated by the projecting wall plates, the lack of notches for wattle and daub infill, and the survival of plaster on the north elevation. Plaster of this kind appears to have been a feature that was adopted earlier in this area of north Suffolk than in the rest of the county.
Attached to the southern end of the barn is a C16 structure that underwent a significant degree of reconstruction in the C19 and C20. It is possible that it was an original component of the barn’s construction, but may have been added later in the same century. Whatever its precise date of origin, this is likely to have been built as a stable. Tudor stables very rarely survive, making this an extremely early example of its kind.
The barn stands on a plinth of largely C17 (or earlier) brickwork. Evidence of historic movement in the shape of the timber frame and the presence of a shoring notch on the north-west corner post suggest that the plinth may have been rebuilt.
At some point in the C18 a waggon porch and corn hole were added to the west elevation of the barn, and a nag stable was attached to the north gable. The porch was given a steeply pitched roof and was covered in thatch. The new porch allowed a large threshing area.
The first known map of the farm dates to 1793 and shows the barn serving an area of 133 acres. The map also shows the nag stable to have been constructed by that date.
In the late-C18 the farm is known to have covered 133 acres.
In 1863 the Rook Hall estate was advertised for sale with a detailed list of the buildings it included. The barn with its oak threshing floor, the nag stable and gig house, and the corn hole are all itemised. The stable on the south side of the barn is described as ‘stable for six cart-horses, with harness-house, chaff-bin and loft’, providing some indication of the upper storey that was removed by the end of the C20.
Later in the C19 a cart lodge was built at the north-west corner of the barn and the waggon porch, and a gig house was attached to the west side of the nag stable.
Over the course of the C19 buildings grew up around the barn to the east and south, supporting a busy and well-equipped farmyard. Most of these survived into the second half of the C20 but gradually succumbed to obsolescence, disrepair, and demolition. The buildings to the south of the barn had largely collapsed by 1991.
In the mid-C20 the barn’s roofing material was replaced with sheets of corrugated fibre-cement, and the threshing floor was replaced with concrete. The waggon porch was partly reconstructed after 1955, losing its steep thatched roof. A photograph from 1955 shows the porch prior to demolition. A new barn was built nearby to the west of the Tudor barn at some point between 1950 and 1971.
The barn was added to the Schedule of Ancient monuments on 24 July 1978. There is no history of archaeological excavation associated with the barn. In 2018 samples were taken from suitable oak timbers at the barn and subjected to tree ring analysis (Historic England, 2018).
In 2023 the roof of the gig house was removed with the intention to reduce further risk to the structure.
Details
A threshing barn with ancillary extensions, constructed in around 1523 and extended in the C18 and C19.
MATERIALS
The barn is timber framed, with a primary phase of locally sourced oak felled in or around 1523. The frame rests on a brick plinth. The walls are clad externally in weatherboarding, comprising some C18 elm boards and C19 or C20 pine boards. There are some patches of galvanized iron sheets as wall covering on the east elevation. The north gable retains an area of daub plaster that predates the weatherboarding. The roofs are covered in corrugated fibre-cement sheets, except for an area of pantiles on the western roof slope.
PLAN
The building is aligned approximately north-south. The barn itself is five bays long. The central bay historically functioned as a threshing floor with a full-height central doorway facing east towards the farmhouse. There are extensions on the north, west and south sides.
EXTERIOR
The east elevation comprises the five-bays of the barn itself, clad in a patchwork of C18 and later weatherboard, small areas of concrete, and panels of galvanised iron sheets. There are small openings (former access hatches now appearing as largely unglazed windows) at the north and south ends. At the centre is a pair of doors hung on C19 hinges. The barn stands on nine courses of red brick laid in English bond. Towards the centre of the elevation there are areas of brick repair and some newer courses have been added in Flemish bond. The roof is covered in corrugated fibre-cement sheets. At the right-hand side is the eastern wall of the nag stable, with its original weatherboards and plank-and-batten door. The ironmongery for this door may have been produced on site. The stable stands on a lower plinth laid in Flemish bond. The roof is covered in pantiles. At the left-hand side is the remaining single-storey of the C16 stable, clad in C19 or C20 weatherboard with a corrugated metal roof. This also stands on a lower plinth laid in Flemish bond.
The weatherboarded northern gable of the barn itself is attached to two lower structures, the two-storey nag stable and a single-story gig house. The nag stable also presents a gable wall to the north and is clad in weatherboard. It has a single unglazed wooden window at ground floor level. The gig house has lost its historic external walls and doors. Until the end of 2023 the pantiled roof of the nag stable continued over the gig house, but late in that year the roof coverings were removed from the lower structure.
Extensions have been added to all five bays of the western elevation of the barn. Over the two northern bays the barn roof is covered in pantiles which extend over the attached cart lodge, with a slight change in the pitch of the roof. Some weatherboarding has been lost from the return elevation on the north side of the cart lodge, and on the west it is open-sided. The central bay and that adjoining it to the south form a large waggon porch, developed from an earlier Georgian feature into its present form with a relatively shallow roof at some point in the C20. The porch and the three southern bays of the barn have roofs covered in corrugated fibre-cement. At the south-eastern corner of the building is the corn hole, which projects beyond the southern gable and connects to the C16 stable. The corn hole has a roof partly covered in pantiles and partly with corrugated sheets where it adjoins the stable. It is weatherboarded, and has a doorway on its southern face.
The southern gable of the barn adjoins the C16 stable at ground floor level, and is otherwise clad in weatherboards. The stable has a shallow-pitched roof with a squat gable facing south. It is clad in weatherboards from various periods dating from the C18 through to the late-C20. There are horizontal windows on the east, south and west sides, and a doorway on the east wall.
INTERIOR
The principal interior of the barn is divided into five bays by four open trusses. Principal posts with a 25cm2 scantling and jowled heads are tenoned to tie beams. Cranked arch braces support all of the tie beams, with the exception of two braces that were removed in the C20. There are two tiers of jowled queen posts; the first with arch braces to the collar and arched wind braces to the side purlin; the upper tier clasps the purlin and is pegged to the collar. There are full-height studs tenoned to the wall plates and sole plates along the east and west walls, except for the central entrance bays. The soffit of the central western bay has a series of mortices showing that studs had previously existed here. The central eastern bay has an unpegged mortice for a removable locking bar to secure the doors.
The internal face of the eastern wall shows a blocked pedestrian doorway in the northernmost bay from the 1523 phase of construction. A later doorway was inserted in the western wall, south of the entrance, to provide access to the corn hole.
At the corners of the barn there are drooping braces between the posts, tie beams and wall plates. These, like the external plaster, were more common in northern Suffolk.
Most of the original sole plates survive and, where they are not waney edged, are chamfered with stops at each principal post.
Throughout the barn there are visible carpenters’ assembly marks. Possibly contemporary apotropaic marks can also be found, including taper burns and scratched initials.
At the north-west corner of the barn is a late-C19 or early-C20 threshing machine, produced by the Suffolk firm of Boby.
The cart horse stable at the south end of the barn retains its original wall plates, tie beams and jowled principal posts. Pegging visible in the interior of the barn may have corresponded with a fixed hay rack, now lost. The loft joists are Georgian, and the studwork and bracing are C19 in date. There is a C19 brick floor with a drainage channel. The roof structure and covering are mid-late C20.
The nag stable at the north end of the barn was built against the formerly external wall of the north gable. The addition of this structure in the C18, prior to or perhaps as part of the expansion of weatherboarding around the external walls of the barn, has preserved the earlier external wall surface of the upper parts of the gable: the plaster daub. The daub is keyed to vertical wattles that have been tied to widely spaced laths nailed into the external face of the studs. The stable has two storeys, a floor of beaten earth and its stalls have been removed to leave a single space. The common studs on the north wall have been renewed in the C19. In the north-east corner there is a hatch in the ceiling, accessed by simple rungs nailed to the wall. The joists of the hay loft above do not connect to the north gable wall of the barn, leaving a gap through which hay could be passed directly into mangers below.
The early-Victorian cart lodge at the northern end of the western elevation has an exposed timber frame internally, showing hewn elm tie beams, and common rafters of machine sawn softwood and elm poles, some of which retain their bark.
The waggon porch and its associated lean-to retain some Georgian timbers alongside a larger proportion of the post-1955 rebuilt timber structure.
The framing of the corn hole is visible internally, and the redundant doorway which connects it to the interior of the barn.
