Oakfield Farm Barn

TL22SW 733/6/10013

SYMONDS GREEN LANE Oakfield Farm Barn

II

Farm building, formerly barn, and latterly in mixed usage. Empty and disused at time of inspection (29-4-1999). Late C16/early C17, with near contemporary additions and C19 and C20 alterations. Oak timber framing set upon a low red brick plinth with softwood external horizontal boarding and a corrugated iron sheet covering to half-hipped roof. PLAN: 5-bay range, aligned north-west to south-east, with added 5th bay and advanced porch at north-west end giving L-plan. EXTERIOR: North-east side with double doorway to bay 2 from left, a later single doorway inserted at bay 4, and an advanced gabled porch with double doors to bay 5. North-west side with single doorway inserted at bay 1. Plain gables with half hips. INTERIOR: Near complete timber frame formed of principal vertical posts with jowled heads These carry wall-plates jointed with face-halved and bladed scarfs. Tie beams spanning the building are fixed with full-lap dovetails and morticed into tenons to the jowl heads. The tie beams, which are braced to the wall posts, support raking struts which carry collar beams. The collar beams carry single side purlins, which are clasped between the collars and the principal rafters, which are reduced in thickness above the level of the collars. Bays 1 and 2 have double wind bracing, bays 3 and 4 each have a single brace. Rafters are half-lapped and pegged. Sole plate, mid-rails and wall plates are drilled on lower faces and grooved on upper faces to receive staves for wattle and daub panels, none of which now survive. Vertical studs, to walls, with straight braces notched over them in end walling. Bays 1 and 2 have wide oak boarding internally, with bay 1 having a timber trough fitted along the end wall, subdivided by a stall partition. Closed partition between bays 2 and 3, and collar and tie beams between bays 4 and 5 with mortice sockets and drilled holes for studs and wattle poles of former end wall. HISTORY: The farm of which the barn formed a part is shown on a 1766 County map, and the Richardson map of Stevenage of 1834. It is identified on Ordnance Survey maps of 1884 and 1889 as Fairview Farm. These maps show the barn forming the south-western boundary of a farm yard, with an L-shaped range to the north-east, and a house sited further to the east. The barn is a near-complete example of late C16 or early C17 timber-framing, displaying carpentry detailing characteristic of Hertfordshire practice, and retaining evidence of later extension and adaptation for animal husbandry.

Listing NGR: TL2219124798