Remains of an Aisled Barn at Crown Street Motors

The substantial remains of a timber-framed aisled barn, believed to date to the C16 or earlier and now forming part of a larger motor engineering and sales complex between Crown Street and Dove Street in Lowestoft.

MATERIALS: timber framing, beneath a pantile roof covering, with associated brick and flint walling.

PLAN: linear plan form, aligned north-south, and set between remodelled buildings at either end which stand on the site of removed sections of the timber frame.

EXTERIOR: the timber-framed structure is enclosed within side walling to the east composed of red brick incorporating scattered flint work. The walling is painted externally, and incorporates a short section of a low stone plinth, possibly associated with now- removed wall framing. The wall continues southwards to meet the gable of the street frontage of the building of which the timber-framed section forms part, and extends southwards to meet rear wall of the former smithy building. This section of walling has a blocked window opening with a shallow-arched head, beyond which the walling material is predominately flint rubble. The west side of the timber-framed structure is open, with the arcade posts marking the extent of the surviving historic fabric on that side. The north and south ends of the timber frame are supported by sections of masonry walling forming part of the former forge to the north, and the works office to the south, neither of which are considered to be of special interest.

INTERIOR: the timber frame is three bays in extent, but is thought, on the evidence of carpenter's marks numbering 5 and 4 in the correct sequence in the north bay, to have originally been a five-bay aisled building, of which three bays and the east aisle survive as part of the larger motor engineering complex. The timber frame is comprised of the arcade posts, arcade plates and tie beams of the northernmost three bays of the former aisled building, together with spur ties connecting the four eastern arcade posts to the east aisle wall plate. The west aisle is now missing, but three arcade posts survive, the fourth at the south end having been removed when the building was truncated and the present works office constructed. Braces, both arched and straight - the latter presumed to be replacement frame members- rise from the arcade posts to support the arcade plates and tie beams. Empty mortices indicate the positions of missing braces, and, in the western arcade posts to the centre bay, pairs of empty mortices may indicate the location of a former porch to a threshing bay. There appear to be original frame components or roof timbers above arcade plate level. The present roof structure is of late C19 or C20, and there is an inserted floor of similar date to the north end bay.