Bentley Hall Barn

Bentley Hall Barn

A late 16th-century timber-framed barn of considerable architectural importance, situated approximately 90 metres north-east of Bentley Hall. The barn is a single-phase oak-framed structure comprising sixteen bays of approximately equal length, extending 54 metres in length by 7.5 metres in width, orientated north to south.

The barn is built on a brick plinth 1 metre high, which diminishes by 0.5 metres as the ground level rises towards the north. The closely studded walls contain mid-rails and rise to a maximum height of 5.4 metres. The sides of the studs and posts are hewn concave. The exterior walls retain most of their original brick nogging, and where protected by later extensions, notably at the northern end of the western elevation, they retain their original reddled finish, in which mortar is smoothed over the brickwork and incised with a trowel to create an illusion of regular joints, with the surface painted red and the bonding in white or black. The nogging incorporates a series of original ventilation slits formed by pairs of vertical bricks positioned approximately 30 centimetres below the roof-plates and in some cases below the mid-rails. These slits do not extend into the floored section at the southern end of the building.

The roof pitch of approximately 50 degrees is not sufficiently steep for thatch and was probably designed for peg-tiles. The roof covering is pantiles, probably dating to the mid-19th century.

The brick gables are additions of the later 16th or early 17th century, which replaced the original timber-framed gables and left only their tie-beams and mid-rails intact (both with empty mortices for removed studs). The southern gable incorporates a first-floor window which was lacking from its timber-framed predecessor and has substantial buttresses with tumbled brickwork on either side of the wide double-leaf wooden door. Both gables are decorated with diaperwork and brick finials on stepped corbels, the finials seemingly rebuilt.

On the western elevation are the fragmented remains of mid-19th-century sheds: a ruinous lean-to roof towards the north end, and the ruin of a brick wall extending westwards from the southern corner of the barn.

On the rear (eastern) elevation, the original framing of the two entrances in the second and eighth bays has been removed, probably when two lean-to porches were added, likely in the 18th century. The porches were extensively remodelled in the 19th century and the northern one enclosed to form a shed. An early 19th-century brick shed of similar width adjoins the two northern bays and probably continued along the entire rear elevation. At the southern end, two mid-19th-century shelter sheds have been amalgamated into one large space under a shallow pitched roof clad in corrugated iron. The brickwork on the south wall has been largely rebuilt, and the east gable is of modern corrugated steel.

The roof structure contains two tiers of clasped purlins with cranked wind-braces to the upper tier but not the lower. Externally trenched serpentine wall braces rise from the corner posts and certain storey posts to the common studs. The roof-plates contain edge-halved-and-bladed scarf joints of standard form, and the storey posts are fully jowled and arch-braced to the tie-beams.

The ceiling has been removed from the five southern bays which originally formed a single chamber on the upper storey, although the brick-nogged internal partition remains, as do two neatly chamfered binding joists with mortices for axial joists and the missing internal partition of the two ground-floor areas. The two doors in the rear elevation providing access to these areas retain their original lintels and extend to 86 centimetres in width by 2 metres in height, with jambs interrupting the brick plinths and sill beams.

In the northern two bays a ceiling was later inserted but only the substantial tie beams remain. The brick partition dividing this formerly floored section from the rest of the barn dates to the 18th century.

Various apertures have been made and blocked in the outer walls, and several arch braces were replaced by bolted knee-braces in the 19th century, but in general the 16th-century structure survives intact.