West Court Barn

West Court Barn

This is a Grade I listed aisled barn, dated by dendrochronology to 1296–1304. It has been altered and extended by an additional bay in the 17th or 18th century, with later repairs to the roof and later cladding.

The barn is constructed as an arch-braced timber frame with a cill beam resting on a later brick or stone rubble plinth in most places. It is clad in horizontal weatherboarding with a corrugated iron roof. The principal joints are of reversed assembly type, and the principal trusses were originally strengthened with passing braces on one face. The outer walls appear to have been vertically boarded, with the boards lodged in chased grooves on the underside of the wallplates. Originally the barn had a 'sans purlin' roof of common rafters, with collars in the end bays to support the hip roofs above the aisles.

The barn is an aisled structure originally comprising six bays including hipped aisled bays at each end. It now has seven and a half bays, as the western hipped bay was replaced by an added bay in the 17th or 18th century. It appears to have been a full-height space with no evidence of a loft. The barn currently has two pairs of opposing entrances, with the principal cart entrance now on the north side, although the farmyard lies to the south. Stave holes and mortices in the aisle ties and opposing aisle posts suggest that the barn was originally divided into two equal halves, with entrances logically positioned on the south side in the central bay of each half. The presence of the early wall plate and its low height suggests that the north wall may have been closed or had a low doorway or doorways.

Inside the main barn, part of the cill beam and wall studs in the south wall of the eastern bay have been opened up, linking it to a later cow shed or barn attached at right angles and enclosing the yard to the south. A small structure, probably of 18th or 19th century date, has been built within the bay. The floor level of the two eastern bays is significantly lower than the mean floor surface.

The exterior base, which is taller at the eastern end, comprises red and grey brick and stone rubble, while the south elevation is partly under-built in brick. Above, the timber-framed walls are clad in horizontal weatherboarding. The roof is continuous over the aisles, hipped with a small gablet at the west end and half-hipped at the east end, and is clad in corrugated sheeting. Small 20th century casement windows or fixed lights have been inserted in the east gable end wall. The current wagon entrance, inserted in the north side of the barn in the third full bay from the west, is beneath a slightly projecting sloping roof raised above eaves level. A further full-height entrance exists in the sixth bay. Similar opposing entrances on the south elevation also have raised lintels cutting through the wall plate. All entrances have modern ledge and brace doors or are closed with recent panelling.

Inside, five late 13th or early 14th century trusses define the full bays of the original six-bay barn. Trusses and arcade plates are numbered with carpenters' marks in sequence eastwards along the south aisle and westwards along the north side of the barn, indicating the extent of the original building. Arcade posts stand on later brick or concrete pads or bases and are braced to the tie beams and arcade plates with curved braces. In some cases replaced straight braces are adjacent to the original mortices. Housings for former passing braces are evident on the arcade posts, aisle ties and aisle posts. The outer cill beam survives on the central section of the north wall and the eastern end of the south wall. The wall plate, grooved on the underside, survives on the central section of the south wall and most of the north wall, while the wall plate at the western end is also grooved. At the eastern end of the barn, the aisle sole plates survive on brick or stone rubble plinths. On the north side, most of the aisle ties remain in place, while in the central north and south bays there is evidence from mortices and stave holes of former partitioning.

Aside from the principal trusses which define the barn's profile, the roof has been substantially repaired and replaced in the post-medieval period. It now comprises a side purlin roof with a single tier of collars, queen struts and slender wind braces. Notches near the apex of the original principal rafters of the end trusses housed collars which would have supported the hip roof of the end bays.