Barn 30 Metres North East Of Canterbury Tye Hall Farmhouse

Barn 30 metres north-east of Canterbury Tye Hall Farmhouse

A timber-framed and weatherboarded barn of late 16th and 18th-century date, situated on the east side of Doddinghurst Road, Pilgrims Hatch. The building has a roof of peg tiles and 20th-century flat tiles.

The barn is arranged on a 5-bay plan with a central midstrey and features a simple gabled waggon porch on its south-west front. Outshuts are positioned on both sides of the waggon porch, creating a continuous catslide roof down to low eaves. The doors to the waggon porch are 20th-century replacements, while two old doors survive in each outshut on either side. Fixed windows are present in each gable—a 2-light window in the north-west gable and a 3-by-3 paned window with glazing bars in the south-east gable. Some replacement of the outshut wall by 20th-century brick occurs at the south-east end.

The interior is almost entirely of one build with minimal alteration and replacement, the principal changes being near the north-east midstrey door frame. The principal trusses have jowled posts, some featuring a decorative step stop at the base of the jowl swelling. Curved arched braces connect to straight tie-beams, and the principal rafters with collars are supported by queen posts. Two rows of side purlins exist in each pitch, butted to the rafters and joggled from bay to bay, with common rafters riding over the purlins. Some faces on the principal rafters show redundant joints, apparently for wind bracing now lost; these joints are symmetrically arranged, though the original or proposed system is obscure. The roof is stiffened longitudinally by members inserted at some stage, rising from the queen post feet to the lower side purlins. An almost complete set of carpenters' gouged assembly marks can be seen on the open trusses, numbered in pairs from I to IIII. The wall studding is substantial, with studs set at approximately 0.5-metre centres, braced only above the middle rail with stout curved primary braces—paired at the corner posts and single at the posts of the open trusses away from the barn centre. Several face-halved and bladed scarf joints appear on the top wall plates. Simple chamfering of arrises is evident on horizontal members. The waggon porch is original, with roof trusses featuring side purlins and clasping collars. The inner truss carries a pair of refined soulace braces to the collar; the outer truss was originally wind-braced. Some interior horizontal boarding survives with nails indicating its original coverage of the entire inner face. The absence of any wattle and daub infilling, combined with consistent weather fissuring visible on all frame members' outer faces and partially on their edges, suggests the frame remained exposed for a considerable period, subsequently boarded on the inside with daub packed against it from outside, partially filling the stud panels.

The two outshuts on the south-west side are secondary additions made considerably later, as they cover the weathered outer face of the barn framing. These are probably 18th-century in date.

Two smaller timber-framed and weatherboarded buildings with pantiled gable-end outshuts flank the barn at both ends, projecting forward as wings to the south-west. These have no historical or technical importance. The north-west building is 19th-century and much replaced internally. The south-east building has framing reused from several periods, again heavily replaced. However, the group composition—the principal barn plus the two symmetrical wings—possesses considerable visual group value when viewed from Canterbury Tye Farmhouse to the south-west. The barn and Canterbury Tye Farmhouse form a related group.