Barn South East Of Stantons Farmhouse

Barn south east of Stantons Farmhouse, East Chiltington

This is a late 16th-century barn, timber framed with weatherboarding above brick, flint and stone walls. The roof is covered in concrete tiles.

The barn is L-shaped, comprising four bays with aisles on the west side and on the north half of the east side, the aisles continuing around the north and south ends. The roof is hipped, with a catslide roof over the north east aisled section. Double doors are centrally placed opposite each other in both the east and west elevations.

On the west elevation to the south of the double doors, the lower half of the wall is constructed of ragstone, flint patched, repaired and partially rebuilt with brick; above, it is weatherboarded. The north east aisle wall is similar, with brick above courses of flint and brick, while all other walls are weatherboarded almost to the ground. On the east elevation, a break in the lines of weatherboarding creates a separate section over the double doors, suggesting they may once have been taller.

Much of the original timber framing remains intact. The aisled construction consists of jowled arcade posts on brick plinths supporting an arcade plate and tie beams, which are also supported at either end by braces. The roof is a principal rafter roof with no ridge piece: raking struts springing from either end of the tie beams support the principal rafters and purlins, which are clasped between strut and principal rafter. Carpenters' marks are visible on many timbers, notably on the tie beam to the north of the west door. In the bay to the south of the east door, the framing in the lower half of the wall contains uprights with mortices, which may indicate re-use of these timbers.

The area under the hipped roof at the north end is separated by timber framing with a central upright post and cross beam, with two down braces between cross beam and arcade posts. Laths attached across the framing at this upper level indicate a possible enclosed storage platform. At the southern end of the barn there are mortices corresponding with this pattern of framing, suggesting a similar arrangement. The north east aisle was once partitioned from the body of the barn by timber framing above a cross beam, with cross laths nailed to the frame. The south side of the north east aisle contained a door, now weatherboarded below with a window above.

Stantons Farmhouse was built in 1570 and occupied by the Challoner family until 1714. The barn is of late 16th-century date and therefore probably contemporary with the house. The 1873 Ordnance Survey map at 1:2500 scale shows that in the 19th century the barn formed the west side of a smaller subsidiary yard which lay to the west of a large open space forming the main farmyard. A range of buildings attached to its south east corner formed the south side of this smaller yard, with further buildings to the north. At that time the track to the south of the barn gave access to the main farmyard at its south west corner, and from there wagons would have entered the smaller yard on its east side. The main doors to the barn would have been in this elevation, not as at present to the west.

This aisled barn forms part of the surviving fragments of a late 16th-century farmstead. It is a remarkably intact example of a nationally rare building type—a pre-1750 agricultural building—and its structure is illustrative of the development of local building traditions.