Oakdene

SALFORDS AND SIDLOW

187/3/10026 AXES LANE 26-APR-84 Oakdene (Formerly listed as: AXES LANE Barn 3 yards west of Cyprus Farmhouse)

II Converted barn, now house. Dated by dendrochronology to c1430.

MATERIALS: Timber framed, weatherboarded, on a replaced brick plinth, gabled shingled roof.

PLAN: 4 bays aligned east-west, the western bay is slightly narrower, but the barn is of one construction.

EXTERIOR: The roof frame appears to be contemporary with the main frame. Attached at right angles to the south of the barn is an early C21 wing which is not of special interest. North and south entrances are both altered, the southern wall partly rebuilt, and with inserted C21 windows and doors.

INTERIOR: The frame has jowled posts at the angles and framing the former entrances, a midrail, and long passing braces at each angle. Wattle slots on north, west and east walls are evidence of former wattle and daub both above and below the middle rail. It has a crown post roof of which the westernmost crownpost is replaced. The crownposts are of square section with square sectioned longitudinal and transverse braces. The roof retains housings of former rafters of the original hipped roof.

HISTORY: The barn formerly belonged to Cyprus Farm, the late C19 farmhouse of which is adjacent to the east. There is no record of a medieval farmstead associated with the barn, but historical records for the area are poor and the Tithe Map ambiguous. The revised date for the barn fits it neatly into the period expected for Surrey barns with long passing braces, the latest true examples being from the later C15.

SOURCES: Dr M C Bridge, The tree-ring dating of timbers from Oakdene, Axes Lane, Salfords, Surrey (May 2007), Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:

• It is a substantially intact medieval barn frame dated to c1430 by dendrochronology. * It retains evidence for the unusual arrangement of wattle and daub above and below the mid rail, and is, unusually for a medieval barn, of four bays.