Cow Houses, Barn, And Stable To East Of Meesons Farmhouse

The cow-houses, barn, and stable located to the east of Meesons Farmhouse are structures from the 17th and 18th centuries, with alterations and additions made around 1857. They feature a timber-frame construction with brick infill set on a rubble plinth, as well as weatherboarding and polychrome 19th-century brickwork. The layout is L-shaped, with one wing comprising a cow-house that includes a hayloft above, and the other wing containing a three-bay barn, a weatherboarded cow-house, and brick stables.

The cow-house with hayloft has a lower level made of rubblestone, topped by a timber-framed loft that is one panel high. The brick infill includes diamond-pattern vent holes. There are three plain boarded doors on each side, with three-panelled doors at the loft level. Inside, the roof is supported by a five-bay structure featuring a single trenched purlin and trusses with a cambered tie beam, collar, and vertical struts.

The barn is a three-bay former threshing barn with square framing that is three panels high. Each bay has two lapped straight tension braces, and mid-19th-century brick infill panels are set on a rubble plinth, with brick-encased gable ends and a patterned tiled roof. The barn has opposing doors, with the eastern door covered by a 19th-century brick two-storey byre or loose box that connects to the cow-house with hayloft. The interior features a single trenched purlin roof with encased end trusses, cambered tie beams, twin vertical struts, and collar, along with internal trusses of cambered tie beam and twin raking struts, supported by long straight tension-braced cross-frames.

The weatherboarded cow-house connects the barn to the stables to the south. This 19th-century range has brick on the eastern side and is weatherboarded on the western side. Inside, it has a four-bay roof supported by three king-post trusses and a single purlin.

The stable block, built of brick and dated 1857, features a west front with a stable door on each side of a central pier, flanked by two-light casements, all topped with brick segmental arches. A central projecting gable includes a boarded pitching hole. The south gable has a plain boarded door with an inset inscribed tablet that bears the date 1857 and the initials CHRB, referring to Sir Charles Henry Rouse-Boughton of Downton Hall. The interior of the stable block has not been inspected.