Rent Street Barn

A farmhouse, now a private house, dates primarily to the 16th century, with a lower eastern portion constructed later. A western crosswing and hall were built to the west of the crosswing, and alterations occurred around 1930 by Edmund Wimperis. The building is timber framed with brick sills and plastered or painted brick infill, and has steep old red tile roofs.

The original house is a two-story, three-bay end-cross-passage plan building facing north, with a continuous jetty along the north side. A one-and-a-half-story, three-bay structure was added in the 16th century to the east end, likely a service wing originally, though possibly a byre. The ground floor has two close-studded bays and a jettied gabled western crosswing, with a separate west hall opened to the roof around 1930 in an antiquarian style. Original walls feature panels four or five bays wide. The entrance was moved from the east bay of the hall – where a passage was originally positioned behind a large chimney – to the west bay of the eastern portion. Each of the six bays has a window, and there are two gabled dormers at the eaves of the eastern portion. Small, two-light square casement windows are present, along with two three-light transomed windows inserted below the jetty. The jetty features main beams carried on brackets and bull-nosed joists.

The interior reveals exposed timbers, including two longitudinal beams to the middle bay of the jettied portion and the narrower eastern bay, which contains a large chimney and a cross passage. There is possible evidence of trimming for a stair in the southwest corner of the hall. The parlour, set a step down in the west bay, features a single axial beam. All ground floor beams and joists are chamfered and stop-chamfered with run-out stops. A large ogee-and-roll shaped bracket over the wide fireplace in the hall supports a floor beam. Heavy jowled posts and quadrant curved tension braces are also visible. Wattle and daub infill remains in the attic’s east wall. The roof is a clasped-purlin design with collar and struts and wind braces. Chamfered joists and beams support the floor of what was formerly an attic. The structure of the lower eastern portion of the roof is open to the stairwell, with curved braces to cambered tie-beams, and a clasped purlin roof on inclined curved queen-posts with wind braces to the purlins. At the southeast corner of the jettied post, there are mortices under the wallplates for a four-light diamond mullioned window. A circular cast iron Boxmoor grazing rights plaque (no. 588) is present; plaque no. 589 is preserved inside.