Barn 20M North-West Of Bears Copse Cottages

This is an 18th-century barn located 20 meters north-west of Bears Copse Cottages in Waltham St Lawrence. The barn is constructed as a timber frame on a red-brick base, with upper walls clad in overlapping sawn boards and a corrugated asbestos roof.

The barn has a three-bay east-west layout, measuring approximately 12 meters long by 5 meters wide. A centrally placed Dutch door provides access on the south side. Evidence suggests that the western bay was once partitioned to its full height, and that a loft existed in the eastern bay.

The upper section of the barn is supported by brick plinth walls approximately 1 meter high. The south side features a Dutch door, and a pair of small casement windows to the right of it. Further windows are positioned in the gables, and a row of about 12 small square apertures with shutters runs along the north wall. The roof is half-hipped.

The interior, now floored with concrete, reveals the building's timber-frame structure. The upper walls are of close-studding, partially renewed, with cill plates set atop the plinth walls. The roof trusses are of queen-strut construction, with purlins clasped between collars and principals, and curved diagonal struts supporting the tie-beams. There are mortices on the tie-beam immediately west of the entrance, and dowel-holes in the collar above, indicating the bay was formerly partitioned off. The tie-beam east of the entrance shows mortices suggesting a loft structure in the adjacent bay.

The site's oldest structures date back to the 17th century, and this barn was likely added in the first half of the 18th century for crop storage or animal housing. The damp location necessitated rebuilding the lower walls in brick during the 19th century. In the 20th century, the roof was re-clad with corrugated asbestos.

The barn is designated for its status as a pre-1750 vernacular timber-framed barn with much of its original structure intact. Despite some fabric renewal, its original structure remains basically intact, allowing for reconstruction of missing elements. It also has group value with the larger barn located to the south-west.