Faversham Abbey Minor Barn

Faversham Abbey Minor Barn

This is a monastic aisled timber barn, built circa 1350 as part of the royal abbey at Faversham. The barn originally extended further west across the yard, as shown on a 1774 map, but was subsequently cut off at the west end.

The barn now comprises 5 bays and is clad in weatherboarding on a flint and brick plinth, with a tiled roof hipped to the east and gabled to the west. At the time of survey, vandals had stripped part of the tiles at the west end. A central 18th-century hipped cart entrance provides access. The timber frame displays characteristic features of its period: all passing braces are present, and the aisle posts feature arch braces resting on shored plinths. An unusual structural detail is that three posts are not squared at their bases but instead present untrimmed trunks with untrimmed forked branches supporting the posts on two legs. The west end has a terminal outshot and shored axial post, while the rafters suggest the east end once had a cantilevered half bay and outshot.

The roof contains 5 chamfered crownposts, three having 4 headbraces and two having 2 headbraces. The complete set of original rafters survives. The barn is thought to be one of only two surviving collar purlin and crownpost roof barns of the middle period in Kent, as noted by S E Rigold in his study of major Kentish timber barns published in Archaeologia Cantiana LXXXI (1966).