West and North Barns, Barnes Hall Farm

West and North Barns, Barnes Hall Farm

Two barns forming part of a courtyard farm complex. The earlier barn dates from the 16th or 17th century and was built for the Watts Horton family; the later barn dates from around 1824 and was built as part of an early 19th-century planned farm for William Smith. Both barns have been altered during the late 19th century. The buildings are constructed of sandstone with stone slate roofing, though corrugated asbestos has been used in places. Timber framing is evident in the earlier barn.

The complex is laid out around a courtyard. The west barn is a timber-framed threshing barn that has been encased in stone and extended in the early 19th century to create a mixed-use building. The north barn is a stone-built threshing barn with an enclosed cart entrance at its west end opening into the yard, with late 19th-century alterations at the east end forming a food processing room. The courtyard arrangement also includes an angled corner building connecting the west and north barns, an early 19th-century single-storey west range with animal housing and an enclosed pedestrian walkway, and long single-storey open-fronted shelter sheds. Also part of the group are a Grade II listed dovecote (possibly originally intended as a garden gazebo) and a Grade II listed cartshed. The south side of the courtyard is bounded by the high north wall of the adjacent walled garden.

The west barn is built of squared, punched sandstone blocks laid in watershot courses with a double-pitched roof covered in corrugated asbestos and an extended catslide roof on the east side towards the yard. The western elevation overhangs the stone wall, supported on a horizontal timber plate carried on projecting rafters. The outer rear elevation facing the hall drive contains five bays with square windows at ground and first-floor levels. The window apertures have ashlar surrounds, flush on the first floor and with projecting sills on the ground floor. Ground-floor windows have glazed small-pane frames, some partially opening, with wooden hinged shutters to the first-floor windows. An inserted doorway between the first and second bays has a plain boarded hinged door. The east yard elevation is single storey and six bays wide. The three left-hand bays serve as a milking parlour with equally-spaced doorways with ashlar lintels and large quoins to the jambs. The three right-hand bays form a stable with a wider central doorway flanked by square windows with ashlar surrounds. The doorways have split doors and the windows have glazed small-pane frames with tilting top lights. A cobbled stone-kerbed walkway runs along the front.

The north barn is built of squared, punched sandstone blocks laid in watershot courses with a stone slate roof hipped at the east end. A single bay at the west end is roofed in corrugated asbestos as a continuation of the north-west corner building, marked by a straight joint. The outer north elevation has a large segmental-headed cart entrance towards the left-hand end with large quoins to the jambs, stone voussoirs, and large boarded double doors. At the far right-hand end are two smaller cart entrances with basket arches and boarded double doors. The left-hand entrance has bumper stones and leads into the yard; the right-hand entrance opens into a separate altered room. To the left of the large cart entrance is a pedestrian doorway with quoin jambs, monolithic lintel, and boarded door, alongside a small ground-floor window later extended in depth. Above and to the right are rows of slit vents. Either side of the entrance are inserted square windows with small-pane glazed frames. Beneath the eaves at the right-hand end are three square pitching holes. The south yard elevation has a similarly detailed basket arch entrance at the left-hand end and a large segmental-arched cart entrance towards the right-hand end, with slit vents between. To the right of the large cart entrance is a pedestrian doorway beneath the attached shelter shed, with a rectangular window with ashlar surround and small-pane timber frame positioned above the roof level of the shelter shed. The left-hand bay has been truncated and a recessed wall rebuilt relating to the corner building. A stone-kerbed walkway runs along the front.

Internally, the west barn comprises five bays. It was originally narrower with a timber frame before being later encased in stone. On the east yard side, two vertical posts define the first and second bays. These large square posts rise to a wall plate with diagonal braces to each side and a third diagonal brace supporting tie beams of principal rafters with collars, pegged and numbered with Roman numerals. Empty mortices in the tie beams indicate that there were originally similar braced posts on the west side, but the tie beams now sit on sections of sawn-off wall plate set in the stone wall. The two right-hand vertical posts have been partially replaced by a stone wall, with only the upper sections with braces remaining to support the tie beams. The trusses have two purlins to each side and a ridge post. Horizontal mid-rails run between the south gable wall and the two full-height vertical posts; the rail running between the second post and the replacement stone wall is a later insertion. The third bay was originally a double-height central opening characteristic of a threshing barn. Empty mortices in the wall plate and mid-rails indicate the position of timber studs that would have supported lath and plaster infill to the original outer walls. On the east side of the vertical posts is a 19th-century aisle with half-trusses supporting the lower part of the catslide roof. The trusses on the left-hand side rest on the original mid-rails, while those on the right-hand side are set into the later stone wall. The trusses have two vertical and two diagonal struts and are morticed, supporting two tusked tenoned purlins. The left-hand side contains a full-depth milking parlour with a row of stalls on each side of a central feeding passage; the stalls are concrete but their arrangement respects the original door positions. The space on the right-hand side is subdivided by stone walls. On the east yard side is a plastered stable with timber and brick stall dividers against the rear wall, a tiled floor, and partial remains of a hay rack. Behind the rear wall is a separate feeding passage with several square openings for inserting hay into racks; some have wooden hinged shutters and others have been blocked. On the west side is a stone-flagged room into which the inserted doorway opens. The first floor is reached by a narrow wooden ladder in the feeding passage, which was not inspected.

The north barn contains eleven internal bays with king post trusses with vertical and diagonal struts similar in appearance to the half-trusses in the west barn. The king post is bolted with tusked tenoned purlins. A stone-flagged threshing floor lies between the large cart entrances towards the east end of the building. On its east side is a ceiled room for food preparation. At the west end, the cart entrance into the yard has a stone side wall and is ceiled to form a separate cobbled passage.