Tithe Barn At Place Farm

The Tithe Barn at Place Farm is a Grade I listed building dating from the 15th century, originally serving as a barn for a monastic grange. Constructed from rubble stone and dressed limestone, it features a thatched roof, which was formerly covered with stone slates, and has coped verges and staddlestones. The barn consists of thirteen bays and includes central opposing gabled porches with angle buttresses and double chamfered pointed doorways, along with planked doors. The west side has 19th-century Tudor-arched double planked doors on either side, while the north side features square-headed planked doors flanking the central porch. Each porch is accompanied by six buttresses with offsets and five tall arrow loop vents. The south and north gables each have a central buttress with arrow loops on either side and above.

Inside, the barn has thirteen bays supported by raised cruck trusses, each featuring an arch-braced collar and an upper collar, with some cranked and a braced saddle at the apex. There are three tiers of through purlins, and some straight windbracing has been retained. The Tithe Barn is reputed to be the largest tithe barn in England, although it is not the longest. Along with the farmhouse and gatehouses, it forms one of the finest surviving groups of monastic grange buildings in England. The barn was owned by the Abbess of Shaftesbury until the Dissolution. It is designated as an Ancient Monument in Wiltshire, No 242.