Great Barn

The Great Barn, attached to Manor Farm and now serving as the Wiltshire Folk Life study centre, dates from the late 17th century. It is a timber-framed structure weatherboarded on stone sills, topped with a thatched roof. The barn features nine bays with aisles returning at both ends, and there are cartways located in bays 2 and 8. Bay 2 was later extended to the north by one bay to form a porch. The weatherboarding includes 20th-century glazed openings on both sides.

The interior showcases tie beam trusses with struts to the aisle posts, which are supported on limestone pads. The posts are deeply haunched, and there are raking struts to the principal rafters along with straight windbraces to the single purlins. At the ends, the purlins are supported by single re-used cruck blades, with purlin struts at the half bays. The scarfs are square butt squinted joints. The barn contains much re-used timber and was re-numbered from the east end during its erection. It was restored in 1978 for the display of farm and country life.