Barn And Adjoining Cowhouse Or Stable At Babdown Farm

The barn and adjoining cowhouse or stable at Babdown Farm, dated 1847, were built for Robert Stayner Holford, possibly by Lewis Vulliamy. The structure features coursed stone and a stone slate roof. The barn has twin gabled cart entries facing into the yard, with brick gables that include a single stone displaying the initials "RSH" on the left and the date on the right, both topped with timber lintels and renewed double timber doors. The roof slopes down on either side of the entries and features a catslide between them, with a stable door and two long slit vents on the outer side, as well as a central three-bay animal shelter divided by cylindrical rubble stone piers. The rear has similar but projecting cart entries with a wooden lean-to between them, and there is a cambered-head pitch hole with slit vents at the gable ends. The single-storey L-shaped cowhouse or stable block has seven doorways, mostly with stable doors, arranged in a slightly irregular pattern with shallow wide openings, some of which are glazed. The interiors are not accessible. This building is part of a complete and largely unaltered contemporary farmyard complex, likely one of several constructed in the area by Vulliamy, linked by walls and originally connected to the stable block and cowhouses to the northeast by a gateway, of which only the piers remain, with the gate missing.