Threshing Barn At Manor Farm

Threshing barn, probably early 18th century, pre-Agricultural Revolution.

The barn is built of coursed squared limestone rubble with a stone slate roof. The cart opening in the north wall is spanned by a massive hewn timber lintel with quoined jambs. Other openings have limestone lintels. The building is orientated east-west.

The north wall contains the central cart entrance with modern replacement doors. Arrow slit ventilation slits pierce both ground and first floor levels. A single-storey outbuilding with a lean-to roof is attached to the west gable; its north wall, slightly set back, also has a much smaller cart entrance.

The south wall has a central broad winnowing door with quoined jambs and stone lintel, hung with a plank door probably of 19th-century date or later on strap hinges. To the west is a second narrower doorway, also with quoined jambs. To the east is a small ground-level opening, now blocked, thought to have housed a drive shaft for a threshing machine. Two small windows at first floor level are roughly equally spaced along this elevation.

The east gable has a small high-level window. The west gable has two ventilation slits, one at first floor and one at attic level.

Internally, the roof structure is exposed, consisting of metal-pinned king strut trusses supporting staggered trenched purlins that are pegged. Two redundant line shafts with belt wheels span between the roof trusses. The western third of the building has a replacement upper floor.

The barn is believed to have originally been the home farm of Thorpe Manor, which lies just over 50 metres to the north-west. Until the late 19th century it may have been directly managed from the manor house; the building now known as Manor Farmhouse immediately to the west does not appear on the 1893 Ordnance Survey map but was built by the 1906 edition.

The precise date of the barn is difficult to establish. It may originate from shortly after the 17th-century enlargement of the hall, possibly following a change in ownership, or it may be as late as 1814, the date of Thorpe Audlin's enclosure of the openfield system. Enclosure typically prompted new farm building construction. However, the form and details of construction suggest a date before the Agricultural Revolution of the late 18th century. This is evidenced by the scale and style of the timber lintel for the cart opening and the absence of a corresponding cart opening in the south wall. Although the winnowing door in the south wall would have provided cross-draught for hand threshing of corn in the centre of the barn, it would not have been large enough to admit carts as became more typical with improved farming practices developed during the Agricultural Revolution in the later 18th century. The roof structure, employing metalwork and sawn timbers, appears to be a later replacement, likely early 19th century rather than late 19th century.

The barn has group value with the three-storey multifunctional farm building immediately to the north and Thorpe Manor (Grade II listed) to the north-west, all forming part of the former manorial home farm.