Barn At Beauchief Abbey House

The barn, located a short distance north of the former Beauchief Abbey, likely dates to the 16th century, though it may be even earlier, potentially connected to the Premonstratensian abbey that existed until its Dissolution in 1536-9. Originally, the lower half of the side walls were either stone or cob, with timber framing above. The building is now cased in coursed rubble stone with a graduated stone slate roof. The barn has two bays running east-west, though evidence suggests there was at least one additional bay to the east. The east gable wall features a wide modern opening with a squared stone lintel and timber double doors, above which is a clock set in a 19th-century ashlar surround. The west gable wall has a doorway and a wide modern window inserted. The east bay of the north wall has a wagon entrance and doorway, both blocked, while the south wall has no openings, having been built in two phases with a thicker wall in the east bay. The interior retains a well-preserved, timber roof structure. Only the central king-post truss survives in its entirety, featuring an arch-braced tie-beam 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 ridge-piece, with each brace staggered at the post. Plank-shaped principal rafters step out towards the base, widening the space. Each rafter has two trenched purlins, 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 common rafters are original. Single dowels in the north post of the central truss mark the position of a mid rail that would have divided the framing from the lower walling. Both side walls retain heavy wall-plates; in the west bay of the north wall, curved braces rose from the truss posts to the wall-plate, with paired dowel holes indicating the locations of similar braces that are now missing. That same west bay of the north wall also contains a series of small wall recesses.