East Barn at Hill Top

This is a late 17th-century farmyard barn, located in Herefordshire. It is timber-framed and built upon a rubble stone plinth, with a roof of stone tile and clay tile. The infill panels are a mix of wattle and daub, with some later brickwork and inserted windows.

The barn is constructed using a traditional Herefordshire post-medieval, box-frame method, with roughly square panels held together by pegged joints and lime-plastered timbers. A boarded door is set into the west side of the frame. There are boarded openings to the loft at the upper left, to the right of the doorway, and at the lower right end. The lower left side has two glass-filled panels, and there are five under the eaves to the right. The rear elevation includes a narrower door, along with two glass panels to the left. The gable ends are timber-framed, featuring tie-beams, collars, and struts. The lower south gable has a boarded loft opening, while the upper north gable contains one glass panel.

Inside, the barn is divided into two units with differing floor levels. Most of the beams and purlins are stop-chamfered with run-out stops and incorporate some re-used earlier timbers. The uphill, or north, bay originally had two floors while the downhill, or south, bays feature three floors. A timber-framed partition wall incorporates a roof structure similar to the main barn’s trusses, with tie beams, straight struts to the collar, raking struts, two rows of overlapping trenched purlins, and a ridge beam. The infill panels here are mostly wattle and daub, plastered and limewashed, with traces of limewash also on the timbers. Stairs rise against the dividing wall, providing access to the three levels of the south bays. The ground floor has spine and cross-beams with joists, some of which have been replaced, and brick nogging infill. The second floor includes a spine beam supported by a central post from a cross-beam at floor level and displays a combination of wattle and daub panels and mesh. The attic floor has a simpler roof structure with raking struts to the principal rafters, dividing the two bays, with some renewed rafters.

The barn is depicted on maps from the early 19th century. Historical records indicate that William Lambe owned the farm in 1837 and held a substantial landholding. The area immediately east of the barn is known as Hackney Meadow. The later insertion of windows suggests that the downhill bays may have been used as a workshop.