Barn With Integral Horse Engine House At Approximately 20 Metres East Of Great Fursnewth Farmhouse

A barn with an integral horse engine house, dating from around the mid-19th century, stands approximately 20 metres east of Great Fursnewth Farmhouse. The barn is constructed of slatestone rubble with granite dressings, including an ashlar course acting as lintels over the ground floor openings at the front. The left-hand wall of the horse engine house is slate-hung. It has a dry Delabole slate roof with gable ends to the left and right, and a full hip to the rear of the horse engine house, finished with red clay ridge tiles.

The building follows an irregular T-shaped plan, consisting of a large rectangular barn built partly into the bank at the rear, and a square, integral horse engine house adjoining it at the rear, slightly left of centre. The barn’s front elevation is nearly symmetrical, featuring four windows. A wide central waggon doorway is flanked by probable stable doorways to the left and right, each below small first-floor ventilator windows set high under the eaves. A doorway on the far left has been widened. The rear of the barn has a wide loading doorway with a slate hood supported by wooden brackets. A slit ventilator is located towards the left and another is situated between the barn and the engine house, alongside a wide opening at ground floor level, which is likely later. The horse engine house has two openings on each of its ground floor walls, with windows above except for a later doorway, enlarged from a window, that provides access from what were formerly steps rising from the barn's loading doorway. A remnant of a 12-pane two-light casement window, possibly original, remains above the unaltered wide doorway. Some openings are blocked. The right-hand end of the building has a central loading doorway with wooden corbels where a hood once stood.

The interior is lofty, retaining original floors and roof structure. The floors of the barn rest on eight heavy cross beams. The floor of the horse engine house has been removed. The barn’s roof features good quality queen post roof trusses, while the horse engine house incorporates a later hoisting truss positioned at a right angle to the others. This is a rare example of a purpose-built barn with an integral horse engine house, exhibiting good quality features; typically, horse engine houses are added to existing barns with older threshing floors.