Barn Adjacent To The Folly

Barn Adjacent to The Folly, Woodcote

This is a mid to late 18th-century timber-framed barn, possibly incorporating re-used posts. The structure stands on a metre-high foundation wall of unknapped flint with red brick corners and two top levelling courses; one section to the rear, probably rebuilt, is of brick only. The walls are clad with colour-washed weatherboarded timber, and the roof is plain red tile with half-hip to the left (viewed from the front) and a full hip to the right. An iron weathervane with cardinal points sits at the centre. The plan is rectangular, though the rear corner closest to the adjacent house is heavily angled to facilitate vehicular access to the yard behind.

Access to the barn is provided by tall, opposed double doors at the centre of the front and rear walls (the doors themselves are modern replacements), with a single back door to the rear left. A later weatherboarded shed is attached to the left front, and a small weatherboarded stable, tackroom and gighouse are attached to the rear; these later structures are of lesser interest.

The interior contains four bays with a queen-post variant roof. The main posts have jowels and arched braces to the tie beam, and three light main trusses support the structure. Most other components—including the upper parts of the queen-post trusses, braces, purlins set on queen-post collars, rafters and wall studs—are of split trunks and branches. The end bay nearest the house, accessed via the back door, is clad with vertical boards. A loft floor has been inserted at first-floor level, supported by two poles strapped to the tie beam above. The opposite end bay has a brick wall to the rear where the gighouse adjoins the barn.

A low brick and flint property boundary wall to the front of the barn, returning to abut its front-left corner, echoes the character of the barn's foundation wall. A gateway in this wall provides access to the front double doors.

The barn appears on Davis's Map of Oxfordshire (1797) and was presumably part of a small farm on the site. Woodcote is a hilltop village at the southern end of the Chilterns, traditionally originating as scattered cottages around a common in beech woods. The adjacent Folly, a Regency villa believed built in the early 19th century by the Fergusons, Reading brewers, clearly incorporates older fabric. The barn forms a valuable architectural group with The Folly and the listed parish church opposite, and its proximity to the road makes it an important contributor to the village's character.