Barn at Down Farm

This barn, originally a threshing barn, dates to at least the mid-17th to mid-18th century, with possible earlier origins, and a porch was added by the mid-19th century. It is a timber-frame structure with a brick and stone plinth, clad in weatherboarding, and has a hipped roof covered in clay tiles.

The barn is arranged with five bays, oriented east to west, featuring a pair of opposing entrances at the centre; a porch is located on the north side. The building sits on a slope running north down to the south.

The exterior is a single-storey building with a substantial hipped roof. The wall base is of stone and brick, with some 20th or 21st-century brickwork replacements, particularly on the eastern half of the south elevation. The upper walls are timber-frame and clad in weatherboarding, with a section lost from the western end of the south elevation, where a reused multi-pane window has been inserted. A large opening is at the centre of the south elevation, but it currently lacks doors. On the north elevation, a timber-frame hipped-roof porch with a brick base incorporates a pair of 20th or 21st-century timber doors.

The interior retains much of its original timber-framed structure, evidenced by carpenters’ assembly marks on several timbers. The frame features jowelled posts with straight braces, studs with diagonal passing braces, cill beams, and wall plates. The end walls include further rows of studs and posts reflecting the hipped roof ends. The roof structure relies on four principal trusses with tie beams, queen posts, raked struts, and collars. It also includes two rows of staggered trenched purlins, a square ridge purlin, pairs of principal rafters joined by yoke pieces, and common rafters. The north wall plate and cill beam have been cut into to accommodate the porch. Some 20th-century replacement timbers and reused timbers are present, along with reinforcing additions. The porch, dating from between the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries, has stud walls with passing braces, wall plates, and cill beams, with a raked-queen-strut roof truss incorporating a tie beam, principal rafters, common rafters, staggered purlins, and a ridge board, suggesting reused timbers. Two pairs of 20th-century concrete-block stall partitions are located within the barn, and a pair of historic timbers have been reused as posts attached to one wall.

The listing includes only the barn itself; a stable wing to the south, the detached remains of a former west wing, and a detached pump house to the south-west are not included.