Barn 50 Yards North Of Manor Farmhouse

TL 47 NE WENTWORTH CHURCH ROAD (East side)

8/47 Barn 50 yards north of Manor Farmhouse

GV II

Barn. C16 and C17. Timber framed, weatherboarded with roof rebuilt in 1899 and now of two pitches and covered in corrugated iron. Aisled and of approximately nine bays. Two cartway openings on the north side. Interior: Only several of the trusses were visible. That of late medieval date has paired bracing to the tiebeams and single bracing from arcade post to arcade plate. There is bracing from the wall posts to the arcade posts which are halved over the aisle ties. The early date for this part of the barn is suggested by the paired bracing in the tie beams and the continuous bracing from the wall post to the arcade post. However insufficient of the truss or the rest of the barn was visible to establish either the extent of the C16 part of the barn or whether it was a rebuild of an early barn in an archaic form. The trusses at the west end of the barn are later. They do not have evidence of the paired tie beam bracing or the arcade post bracing. Writing in 1744 when the manor was let to Dr Conyers Middleton, Woodwardian Professor of Theology at Cambridge University, William Cole commented that the farm had "one of the largest barns I ever saw, except the Bishop's barn at Ely".

VCH: Cambs Vol IV

Listing NGR: TL4815878485