Barn at Roche Old Court

Barn at Roche Old Court

A six-bay aisled threshing barn of post-medieval date, probably built between 1650 and 1750, with repairs and alterations made in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.

The barn is timber-framed and built on a brick and flint sill wall with patch repairs in brick, concrete, and concrete block. The external walls are clad in replacement timber weatherboarding, and the roof is covered in plain clay tiles.

The barn is oriented on a north-west to south-east axis with the farmyard elevation facing north-east. It comprises six bays divided by five pairs of aisle posts, with two pairs also forming the end walls. The south-east end wall has partially collapsed as of 2020. The sill wall increases in height to accommodate the slope of the site, and the barn has a steeply pitched roof with half hips at either end (the south-east hip has collapsed). A half-hipped porch projection has been added to the fourth bay of the south-west elevation. The north-east elevation has a late 20th-century door inserted towards the north end and a window towards the south end. The opposing doorways to bay 4 have been altered, with the north-east doorway blocked and a porch added to the south-west doorway.

Internally, the timber framing comprises a continuous sill beam with jowled wall posts that support the wall plate. One curved brace appears in bay 2, and horizontal spurs run from the wall posts to the jowled arcade posts that stand on padstones. Each arcade post has two straight braces supporting the arcade plate and one straight brace supporting the tie beam. Some of these braces are later replacements, though those forming the cross frame between bays 3 and 4, and between bays 5 and 6, are original. Higher set curved braces between the aisle posts and arcade plate on either side of bay 4 suggest there were opposing threshing doors.

The north-west end is sub-divided from the rest of the barn by a low timber partition atop a brick wall, which runs across the cross frame between bays 4 and 5 and stops at the north-eastern arcade post, allowing access between the partitioned area and the main barn via the eastern aisle. A series of low brick troughs stands against the partition and the south-west and north-west walls.

The cross frame at the north-west end has principal rafters that terminate at a high collar to form a half hip. Vertical posts between the sill beam and tie beam, and between the tie beam and collar, with angled straight braces from the sill beam to the arcade posts, support the weatherboarding. The roof trusses are formed of the tie beam, principal rafters, raking queen struts, and high-level collars. The principal rafters support two rows of purlins, with an additional purlin beneath the arcade plate supporting the aisle roof. Straight braces run between the principal rafter and the upper row of purlins. Later secondary bracing of roughly finished and varying scantling has been lapped onto the original structure to support the purlins. The south-east cross frame collapsed in August 2020.

A low timber partition has been installed between bay 4 and bay 5 to form a two-bay cowshed at the north-west end.