East Barn At Hill Top

DILWYN

1563/0/10003 East Barn at Hill Top 10-MAR-05

II East farmyard barn. Late-C17 with minor later alterations. Timber-framed on a rubble stone plinth, with stone tile and clay tile roof. Infill panels are a mixture of wattle and daub with some later brick and inserted windows. EXTERIOR: Traditional Herefordshire post-medieval, box-frame construction with roughly square panels, pegged joints, lime-plastered with the timbers blackened. Boarded door to west incorporated within the frame. Boarded openings to loft at upper left, to right of doorway and at lower end right. 2 glass-filled panels to lower left and five under eaves to right. Rear elevation has a narrower door and 2 glass panels to left. Gable ends are timber-framed comprising a tie-beam, collar and struts; the lower south gable has a boarded loft opening and the upper north gable end has one glass panel. INTERIOR: Barn comprises 2 units, contemporary but with different floor levels. Most beams and purlins are chamgered and stopped, with some re-used earlier timbers. The uphill (north) bay originally 2 floors; the downhill (south) bays have three floors. Partition wall is timber-framed with similar truss comprising tie beam, straight struts to collar, raking struts to the principal rafters, 2 rows of overlapping trenched purlins and a ridge beam; most infill panels here are wattle and daub, plastered and limewashed, the timbers also bearing traces of limewash. Stairs to the 3 levels of the 2 downhill bays rise against the dividing wall. Ground floor has spine and cross-beam with joists, some replaced, and with brick nogging infill. Second floor has a spine beam supported by a central post from a cross-beam at floor level; the panels are a mixture of wattle and daub and mesh. Attic floor has simpler truss of raking struts to principal rafters dividing the 2 bays with some renewed rafters. HISTORY: The barn survives as shown on maps from early C19. The owner at the time of the Tithe Map of 1837 was William Lambe and the apportionment shows that he had a very large land holding in the area. The land immediately east of the barn is called Hackney Meadow. The insertion of windows suggest that the downhill bays may have been used latterly for a workshop. SOURCES: RCHM, Herefordshire, Vol III NW, 1934; Lt Col Colby Map, 1832; Dilwyn Tithe Map and Apportionment 1837; OS First Edition scale 1:10,000, surveyed 1886.