The Motor House at Little Barford

A motor house with attached workshops and covered forecourt, likely to date to approximately 1910-1924.

MATERIALS

The building is constructed of gault brick laid in monk bond with an oak framed roof and forecourt. The roofs are covered in corrugated metal sheets.

PLAN

There are three key elements to the plan: the covered forecourt for washing cars, the garage itself which could house three cars, and attached to each of these are small workshop or ancillary areas used for the management and maintenance of the vehicles.

EXTERIOR

The motor house is a single storey structure. It comprises two parallel ranges, each with a picthed roof terminating in gabled ends covered in corrugated sheet metal.

The eastern range is four bays wide and two bays deep. The southern bays make up the sheltered forecourt, built of an oak frame with a king post roof. There is a brick paved floor, and a short wall on the south side. On the north side of the shelter is a brick-walled area with a doorway onto the forcecourt beneath a red brick lintel. There are three-light timber mullion windows on the east and north elevations of this brick-built block, each with arched red brick lintels.

The western range is four bays wide and one bay deep. It faces onto the forecourt with three wooden double-doors, each with strap hinges, and two glazed upper panels. The rest of the structure is brick built with red brick arches over the windows (one on the east and two on the west elevations) and doorway (at the left hand side of the south elevation).

INTERIOR

The garage has the largest interior volume, providing a clear open space for three cars beneath a king post roof structure. There is an inspection pit at the southern end of the garage, beneath a rudimentary hoist. The workshop on the south-side of the garage retains an original fitted workbench, and there are shelves one of the rooms ancillary to the north side of the forecourt.