Barn, byres and stable, 20m north of High Meadow House

Barn, Byres and Stable, 20m North of High Meadow House

This rectangular barn with attached stable dates from the later 18th century, possibly extending into the early 19th century. It is constructed from coursed local sandstone rubble with cut stone quoins and dressings to the later extension. The original building is roofed in heather thatch, though the eastern end is now roofless.

The building is oriented east to west and comprises a six-bay barn divided into three units by a pair of stone cross walls, with a stable extension abutting and attached at the east end. It stands on a rough boulder plinth.

The south elevation has four entrances. Three serve the original building with renewed timber lintels, the leftmost fitted with a narrow plank stable-door. The fourth entrance belongs to the eastern stable extension and features large blocks forming rebated and internally splayed jambs with a heavy stone lintel; the door is split vertically into two with a pair of strap hinges. The west gable contains six slit vents arranged in three levels. The east gable of the original building displays a number of projecting through stones. The rear elevation has two entrances positioned opposite the west and central doors of the south elevation, the rightmost fitted with a narrow plank door.

The interior stone cross walls are of rubble construction. The westernmost wall rises above the wall-heads to the ridge, while the easternmost rises only to wall-head height. The three units are interpreted as follows: the westernmost section, with opposing entrances and a stone-flagged floor served by a north-south through passage, functioned as a barn, as suggested by its ventilation slits. The central section, also with opposing entrances, contains an original stone threshold with sockets for timber door jambs and a central cobbled passage flanked by slightly raised cobbled surfaces edged with large stone blocks; this is interpreted as a byre. The easternmost unit, thought to have been an additional byre or loose box, originally retained internal timber fittings noted at listing in 1985 and recorded again in 1990. The roofless stable extension contains no internal features.

The roof comprises four pegged oak cruck pairs, all with collars extended beyond the cruck blades to support purlins and a ridge-piece carried between the overlapped ends of the blades. The blades are formed from individual tree trunks, several extremely wany in form. In the barn section, blades spring from the walls; in the byre, they are set on stone pads above the floor at the east side of the opposing doors. Both byre blades show evidence of re-use, with empty sockets at different levels, one retaining a peg. In the byre and loose box, two cruck pairs spring from the walls, with both collars showing evidence of re-use through empty sockets and pegholes. Throughout, oak purlins support oak and pine common rafters, which are either roughly split broad lengths of timber or slender trunks.