Barn At Beauchief Abbey House

SHEFFIELD

784-1/0/10156 ABBEY LANE 02-AUG-05 Barn at Beauchief Abbey House

II Barn. C16 date, though possibly earlier. Originally the lower half of the side walls were either stone or cob, with timber framing above, the principal posts of each truss descending to ground level where they sit on high padstones; the building is now cased in coursed rubble stone, graduated stone slate roof. PLAN: Two bays running east-west, though the survival of a tie beam embedded in the east gable wall and a principal post in its north-east corner suggests that there was at least another bay to the east. EXTERIOR: The east gable wall has a wide modern opening with squared stone lintel and timber double doors. Above is a clock set in a C19 ashlar surround. The west gable wall has a doorway and wide modern window inserted. The east bay of the north wall has a wagon entrance and doorway, both blocked, and the south wall has no openings, though the wall was built in two phases with a thicker wall in the east bay. INTERIOR: Only the central king-post truss survives in its entirety. An arch-braced tie-beam is carried on squared posts in the side walls. The braces have low springing points and are triple-pegged to both the post and tie-beam. The king post has an expanded head and is braced axially to the square ridge-piece, with each brace being staggered at the post. The principal rafters are plank-shaped and step out towards the base increasing the width. Each has two trenched purlins and is morticed and tenoned into the head of the king-post with three pegs; common rafters carried on the back of each principal rafter clasp the ridge-piece, and are morticed and tenoned into the tie-beam and king-post. All the common rafters are original. Single dowels in the north post of the central truss mark the position of the mid rail which formed the division between the framing and lower walling. Both side walls retain heavy wall-plates; in the west bay of the north wall curved braces rise from the truss posts to the wall-plate. The location of similar braces now missing are indicated by paired dowel holes in the wall-plates. In the west bay of the north wall are a series of small wall recesses. HISTORY: The barn is located a short distance north of the site of the former Beauchief Abbey, a Premonstratensian house until its Dissolution in 1536-9, and may have been part of the monastic estate.

The barn retains a well-preserved, timber roof structure of probable C16 date, though its close proximity to a monastic site suggests a possible connection and thus perhaps an earlier, Pre-Dissolution date. The early age of the barn and the intactness of the roof structure justify listing the building at Grade II.